Yesterday after a painstaking count with a ridiculously large pano
photograph I made of the entire Falls of the Ohio basin, Ron Hirsch and I
recorded...
171 great egrets
89 great blue herons
38 double-crested cormorants (I think there were probably at least 10 more
- haven't counted those carefully)
28 black-crowned night herons
12 least sandpipers
That's 288 herons in one spot - pretty cool! Plus the two continuing
herring gulls and at least a couple hundred Canada geese.
Greg Walker
Louisville
On Sun, Jul 12, 2020 at 10:04 AM <brainard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
For many years into the mid-20th Century, the Falls of the Ohio was one of
the best places to view waterbirds in Kentucky. It still has its moments,
but in recent years waterbird abundance and diversity has generally been on
the decrease. One exception has been the number of Great Egrets, in large
part due to the appearance of breeding birds on Shippingport Island.
In "Birds of Kentucky" (1965), Robert Mengel noted that "200 or more"
Great Egrets could be found at the Falls "prior to 1949." During the "DDT
era" numbers of all waders declined, and the typical number of egrets
dropped into the "dozens" during the 1950s and 1960s. Even fewer were
normal during the 1970s and into the 1990s.
However, as the number of pairs in the local nesting colony has increased,
the abundance of Great Egrets feeding out on the Falls of the Ohio has
increased dramatically.
Last year, as many as 87 (Tom Becker, 9/28) were reported at the Falls of
the Ohio, but this year is a record-setter already! This morning, Jamie
Baker counted at least 225 there, and Clay Bliznick mentioned that there
were "tons" a few evenings ago.
If you bird the Falls of the Ohio in coming weeks, try to get a *careful*
tally of the egrets, as we are bound to set some more records for local
high count there.
bpb, Louisville
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