[birdky] RPT. Am. avocets and other w. KY birds

Spent most of today in Fulton and Hickman Counties.

Best find was 7 Am. avocets (photographed) on a sandbar near the southern
end of Middle Bar in the Mississippi River.  Nearby were 17 black terns and
40 least terns.

Lake #9 had a juvenile pintail that seemed to be following a pair of
mallards.  We tried for a picture but the ducks managed to fade away into
the weeds.  The pintail was slightly smaller and more slender than the
mallards, and had a gray beak and legs, plain tan face, a
pectoral-sandpiper-like breast pattern, boldly patterned brown sides, and a
pointed tail. May have been a young male, because you could imagine you were
seeing the beginnings of a white neck stripe.

Lake #9 and Obion area produced only common shorebirds:  least and
semipalmated sandpipers, 20-30 pectoral sandpipers, 2 lesser yellowlegs, and
many, many killdeer.  No sign today of the 6 black-necked stilts we saw at
Obion last weekend.

Miss. kites were scattered around, with 20-25 total seen.

Ben and Mary Yandell
Louisville

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