I birded the LBL area yesterday, in part with Jeremy Teague, Hap Chambers, and
Steve & Teresa Graham. Was hoping to get a glimpse of the frigatebird that had
been seen at Paris Landing on Ky Lake headed north towards Kentucky the evening
before. No luck.
Also very little luck on finding much else of interest . . . I may not have
ever seen so few gulls and terns on the lakes during late September before. I
had hoped the recent cool spell would have brought some more in, but portions
of the lakes were totally devoid of birds. It never cleared out to warm up
enough for the heat distortion to disappear, too, which hampered scanning.
I don't think I saw more than about 200 Ring-billed Gulls all day? ? ? To that
I can add a WHOPPING *one* Forster's Tern and *one* Caspian Tern (more terns at
Jacobson in Lexington than I saw on both lakes combined). The number of
Herrings seems not to have increased. Only noteworthy (but really expected)
sightings were of Lesser Black-backeds including an adult at Sledd Creek, a
first-year (perhaps same bird) off Ky Dam and then down the lake off Sherwood
Shores), an adult at the Kuttawa heronry on Lake Barkley, then *five* adults
loafing in the Old Kuttawa Recreation Area embayment. Bald Eagles (2-4) were
sitting on some of the regular gull loafing bars.
The Grahams and I did run into a really nice flock of warblers at Green Turtle
Bay with birds dripping off the tree branches. The flock included a nice number
of Bay-breasteds and a Cape May. The winter finch forecast mentions an increase
in the number of spruce budworms up in the boreal forests of Canada this past
summer. This may have resulted in a bumper crop of young of some birds that
breed in that habitat including Cape Mays, Bay-breasteds, and Yel-bellied
Flycatchers, all of which seem to be around in good numbers this fall.
The only other highlights were a couple of Peregrine Falcons that appeared to
be migrants heading south and a calling Fish Crow at the Big Bear Creek
embayment of Ky Lake. A stop at Eddy Creek yielded only three species of
shorebirds . . .
bpb, Louisville
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