[birdky] Fulton Co. Willets; 4/23/05

4/23/05
Fulton Co.
Yesterday Don Manning and I birded the Reelfoot area with a visiting Montana 
birder. We made the loop around the top end of the Lake so birded for a short 
time in KY.

We hit the State Line as the wind was really picking up, probably gusting well 
over 30 mph, and a as a driving rain started. We were just south of the KY 
311/Fulton Co. 1282 intersection, where there is some nice shorebird habitat 
adjacent to the road, on the west side. While scanning ahead I saw a flash of 
white landing, and then picked up 5 Willets standing together in the wet field. 
This bad weather had evidently just forced these western migrants down. They 
shortly thereafter tried to leave, but hadn't gotten far north at all when they 
made a big sweeping turn and came back in to light directly opposite of my car, 
allowing some nice photo ops with my little Nikon Coolpix and 5X extender. Once 
again, bad weather produces good birds. These were my 1st Willets in KY, and 
I've only had them a handful of times in TN over the years. It was nice to be 
within 50 feet of these birds as they chattered among themselves, possibly 
making out alternate travel arrangements? :")

Otherwise not much to report, the usual mass of both Yellowlegs, Pectorals, and 
Solitaries at Long Point, etc. Several Bank Swallows were mixed in among the 
many Tree and Barn Swallows feeding over the pools at Long Point. The only 
migrant type warbler in KY was a nice Palm feeding alongside the road.

I have posted a couple of photos of the Willets in my Willet gallery at:
http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/willet , the last two images are the birds from 
yesterday. Once you click on a thumbnail, clicking the previous or next button 
will take you to the corresponding image.

Good birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd

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