16 Bald Eagles in one spot must be a KY state record.
We need to spend more time along the Mississippi in far western KY. This area
is only 2 1/2 hours from Muhlenberg Co.... By the way John Prine gave a
wonderful concert in Central City 2 weeks ago, which we attended. His
grandparents are buried at the big Central City Cemetery and we are going to
find them.
Preston Forsythe, Browder, KY.
Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android
On Mon, Jul 22, 2019 at 9:43 AM,
brainard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx<brainard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: <!--#yiv4583419270
DIV {margin:0px;}-->Mark Monroe and I visited the Upper Hickman Bottoms in
western Fulton County with Clay Bliznick yesterday. The bottoms have been
covered in water since sometime in April. The Missisippi River has *finally*
dropped down to minor flood stage, exposing thousands of acres of mud and pools
in the area. This typically results in a great opportunity to see waterbirds,
particularly waders and migratory shorebirds. The last time this happened
during mid-July, a really nice assemblage of birds was present. This time,
however, for some reason there is little taking advantage of all the habitat.
We scouted habitat on Saturday evening and found the water to be somewhat lower
than I had expected from monitoring the river levels on the internet. There is
also a lot of crop stubble and stalks from unharvested crops last fall,
obscuring views in many parts of the bottoms. Our modest shorebird list from
the area between Sat eve and Sun morn included only six species (Killdeer,
Greater Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, Solitary Sandpiper, Least and
Semipalmated Sandpipers ... and only in small numbers). In addition, there were
*very* few waders. A couple of highlights included *16* Bald Eagles in one
group congregated around a large fish carcass and small numbers of Least Terns.
The situation in the Lower Hickman Bottoms is not dis-similar in terms of birds
... only scattered small groups of shorebirds and waders. However, the water is
in the opposite state, especially from Island No. 8 Slough, south along Midway
Church Road and Open Pond area, southwest to Lake No. 9. Water level in all of
these areas are still high because they have not been able to open the gates on
the Lake No. 9 pumping station all summer. As soon as the water level goes down
a bit more, they will open the gates and this area will drain quickly. This
will result in some great habitat, but probably not for long. I suspect this
will be in the next week or two, but not sure.
Highlights from the Lower Bottoms included a family group of Black-necked
Stilts (2 adults and 2 flighted juvs); a few shorebirds including Least, Semi,
and Pecs, and scattered Mississippi Kites.
bpb, Louisville
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