I considered taking scope with me on the farm circle this morning because I
have spotted 4 shorebirds each day on a neighboring farm wet spot since
reporting 4 Greater Yellowlegs there on the 16th. Radar indicated rain might be
arriving before I got back the the house, so I left scope at home. Wet spot was
down to a small puddle but same shorebirds appeared to still be there. I
crossed the fence and walked on down. Bridge spotted a Great Blue Heron on the
ground and had to run ahead to get it flying. That also got the shorebirds up.
Even though I was too far for a certain visual ID, they announced their
identity as Greater Yellowlegs as they flew off, likely the same 4 I first saw
there on the 16th.
This wet spot used to be a large farm pond until it went dry in 1988. Since
then, it held water only for short periods during wet spells. A few years ago,
the land owner spent what had to be a boatload of money digging a ten foot deep
trench from that wet bottom to a nearby sinkhole, laying in a wide drain pipe
and an upright metal culvert as big as a highway culvert. For several years
this bottom drained within a day of the biggest rain. But the minions operating
the behemoth machines that work his land apparently didn’t get the memo to
watch out for this drainage system. The upright culvert, which protruded more
than 3 vertical feet above ground, has been run over, crushed and buried
completely out of sight. What had been transformed by big dollars into a well
drained field has now returned to a bottom that holds water for up to a week.
I got no good bird pictures this morning, but I did take a close look and took
photos of several trees to see how much they were damaged by the cold, cutting
some blossoms open with my pocket knife to see if the center had turned black.
Paw paws, spice bushes and black cherries don’t appear damaged at all. Red
mulberries look okay, but the foliage shows some damage. Fruit of white
mulberry might be damaged. Foliage of white mulberry completely zapped. Links
below are to my eBird list with no photos and to my iNaturalist observations
this morning of undamaged paw paw and spicebush plants.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S67470253 ;<https://ebird.org/checklist/S67470253>
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42577476 ;
<https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42577476>
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42577974 ;
<https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/42577974>
Frank Lyne
frank@xxxxxxxxxxx - near Dot in Logan County, KY
