Mark Monroe, Brian Wulker, and I did a big day for the month of February last
Friday (17th). It has been 16 years since Mark, Brian Leibacher, and I had set
something of an initial KY Feb record with 102 species. Scouting during the
previous week suggested to me that we should be able to get to 110 on a decent
day.
Friday ended up being a 22-hour marathon that began with a 2:00 a.m. alarm. At
2:30 we were missing our first bird of the day, my Great Horned Owls. Our first
birds of the day, however, were a little over an hour later (3:45 a.m.) … a
small roosting group of Sandhill Cranes in the headlights at one of the ponds
near Cecilia (I figured we’d miss them in west KY so that was our first planned
stop).
An hour later we were in the pre-dawn darkness at the Ken Unit of Peabody WMA
listening to American Woodcocks, eliciting responses from Virginia Rails with
tapes, and *missing* all of the “regular” three owls. On the Muhlenberg County
side of the Green River we did better; in addition to Virginia Rails, a Sora
gave one or two calls (probably the bird Clay Bliznik and I had on the Paradise
CBC). We also got a lucky view of a Barn Owl in the headlights on the Sinclair
Unit Peabody WMA and more woodcocks. I had planned to depart by the time the
sun’s glow began to show in the east, but we could not hear a Short-eared Owl
and with a little light starting to show in the east, we decided to take one
more run down one of the WMA roads. As Brian (the consummate eBirder … yes, the
folks at the Cornell Lab should be proud of the job they’ve done training him …
:o) was entering some data into the eBird mobile app, Mark and I realized at
the last moment that a Short-eared was sitting on the side of the gravel road
as we passed. I went down a ways and turned around; we watched and pished for
several minutes but no Short-eared. I hated to give in to our first “partial
bird” of the day, so we returned to the S1-S2 high spot where more and more
horizon was becoming visible every minute. After about 30 seconds Brian
exclaimed “THERE!” and we all got nice looks at one of the local Short-eareds
wheeling about in silhouette above the horizon.
On to the LBL vicinity, where we were to begin the real day. The drive down was
uneventful; no flocks of turkeys in the fields (I had seen very few during
scouting). We stopped at several spots along the north end of Lake Barkley and
added all of the common waterbirds that have been around including three gulls,
white pelicans, Pied-billed and Horned Grebes, and all the regular divers. The
last included nice numbers of Canvasback, Red-breasted Merganser, and Ruddy, as
well as a single female Greater Scaup. Brian also dug out a female Common
Merganser (perhaps a bird I had seen about 10 days before and figured we’d be
*very* lucky to see even if it was still around), and we got a single Common
Loon. Our big miss on the north end of Barkley was Lesser Black-backed Gull,
but we put our faith in the Sledd Creek embayment over on Ky Lake and finally
moved on.
On Kentucky Lake we were able to find one small flock of Redheads and a real
bonus I had not seen while scouting, a male Long-tailed Duck, viewed from the
Lighthouse Landing sailboat marina. A couple more loons and some more Greater
Scaup were the only other interesting things we could find on the lake, and the
tailwater area was devoid of unusual gulls (and even very few of the
commoners). We made a quick stop at the boat basin below the dam and found both
juv. Black-crowned Night-Herons that have wintered there, and then it was over
to the pine plantation for songbirds. We heard Pine Warblers as soon as we got
out of the car and Red-breasted Nuthatches soon thereafter. As noted
previously, Brown-headed Nuthatch took quite a while to find, but Brian and
Mark finally heard one in the distance and we were able to all get on it for a
look. The wandering around the pine stands did get us some calling Wild Turkeys
in the woods (that ended up being the only ones on the day!) and our first
sapsucker.
On to Sledd Creek where our counted on Lesser Black-backed was loafing with
many other gulls but hoped for Forster’s Terns were absent. While songbirding
there, we got our only Cedar Waxwings on the day. We were missing Fish Crow, so
we decided to make the Cypress Creek loop before heading out of the Ky Dam
area. One stop there in the flooded timber gave us one of only two Cooper’s
Hawks on the day, our first Hairy Woodpecker, and Brown Creeper.
The first big block of birding was behind us; I think Brian tallied us with a
little more than 80 species at that point. A southwest breeze that had
occasionally kicked up a bit was the only weather negative of an otherwise
beautiful morning that had started out in the high 30s and had already reached
the mid-50s. Now it was on to McCracken and Ballard counties to visit farmland
and the West KY and Ballard WMAs. As we got off I-24 at the last Paducah exit,
Mark spied a distant flock of migrating birds … Sandhill Cranes! I had figured
we’d never be lucky enough to see some that far west, but these birds have
probably been wintering at Hop-In Refuge in Tennessee. Over the next 20 minutes
or so we saw maybe a half dozen more flocks going north as we headed west. At
West KY WMA we encountered our first real dose of annoying sustained southwest
winds that made finding songbirds more difficult. We spent at least a full hour
in pursuit of two prized birds on the day (Le Conte’s and American Tree Sparrow
… both rare, the former for KY and the latter for that part of KY). We got
both, but the amount of time invested was troubling, and it was at that point
that we really began having to pick up the pace for the rest of the day. A
quick roadside stop at Ragland gave us our only Winter Wren on the day, and our
first Brown Thrasher, White-crowned Sparrows, and [first real look at –
somewhat amazingly] Dark-eyed Junco. A male Northern Harrier ticked at 60 mph
without even having to slow down was the kind of thing we really needed at that
point in the afternoon, and another couple of roadside stops near Ballard WMA
yielded our first Pileated Woodpecker and Fox Sparrows, as well as a *VERY*
welcome Orange-crowned Warbler (found by Mark out the window on my side of the
car despite me doing everything imaginable to make it more difficult for him to
see [I’m not as slight as I used to be]).
Soon thereafter we were on the public loop at Ballard WMA, where I promptly
missed *both* a Ring-necked Duck and a Sharp-shinned Hawk found by Mark.
Miraculously, another Sharpie appeared about five minutes later and a pair of
Ring-necked Ducks dropped into the slough a few minutes after that, so our lack
of partial birds remained intact. The slough gave us our first good dabbling
ducks on the day including a pair of American Black Ducks and some Northern
Pintail, and a flock of Snow Geese overhead helped our anemic goose list (as
compared to scouting a few days prior). The Snow Goose flock also put us at 100
species on the day! On the way out from the WMA, Brian found a pair of Hooded
Mergansers, and we got some Chipping Sparrows, a few Wilson’s Snipe, and our
*first* [and one of only two on the day] American Goldfinches, but Smokey Road
gave us none of the hoped-for field birds nor Eurasian Collared-Dove. Our last
stop in Ballard County was to be the Cooper Dairy outside of Oscar. We scanned
and scanned and finally realized there was a single pair of Brewer’s Blackbirds
sitting quietly in one of the pastures we’d been overlooking for at least 10
minutes!
It was then a little more than an hour bolt down mostly US 51 into Fulton
County. On the way down we got collared-doves at a few spots, and a roadside
creek finally gave us a pair of Wood Ducks. After about 20 minutes of working
around the Western Meadowlark field east of Hickman, we got good looks at a
couple while a male sang farther out in the field. As we headed on towards
Hickman, a wire-perching Loggerhead Shrike was a nice addition that eliminated
a need to go search specifically for that late in the day and was our 110th
species on the day. In town, a couple of snippets of House Wren song where I
had had one a few days prior brought it right out for nice looks, and we were
off to the Lower Hickman Bottoms for the last hour or so of the day.
The pools along KY 1282 on the Long Point Unit of Reelfoot NWR were teaming
with waterfowl and we quickly added Greater White-fronted Goose, American
Wigeon, and a few more black ducks, although hoped-for early shorebirds and
Blue-winged Teal were absent. We then made a loop out towards Lake No. 9 and
mostly dipped on hoped for field birds in the early evening. One spot did hold
a single Pectoral Sandpiper, but pipit and longspur eluded us. Overhead flocks
of Snow Geese were too distant to pick up any Ross’s, a bird I’d had multiple
times during scouting early in the week. We returned to the Long Point Unit and
were able to pish up a Hermit Thrush (somehow we’d missed all day) and we all
could hear calling Barred Owls and a single Great Horned Owl.
One last stop at the Long Point observation tower would not yield anything
more, and about 6:45 p.m. EST we headed to the house (only 4.5 hours away) …..
species tally on the day 117 (without any partials …:)
Misses:
Found during scouting:
American Pipit, Ross’s Goose, Lapland Longspur, Purple Finch, Fish Crow, Least
Sandpiper
Not found while scouting, but we certainly could have had an early …
Tree Swallow, either species of yellowlegs, Blue-winged Teal, Vesper Sparrow
bpb, Louisville
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