[birdky] RPT: West KY, Sept 4-5
- From: "Palmer-Ball, Brainard (EEC)" <Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx>
- To: "BIRDKY" <birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2010 09:20:42 -0400
Mark Monroe, Eddie Huber, and I visited a lot of places in west KY Sat-Sun. We
knew that the nice front was going to have most waterbirds on the move, but the
chance to bird in fall-like conditions was a welcome one!
We had few real highlights, but I will briefly touch on some habitat notes.
Eddy Creek embayment of Lake Barkley as viewed from the KY 730 bridge is now
good for shorebirds. One of our highlight birds, a Ruddy Turnstone, was there
with about 8 other species of commoner shorebirds, including a single Baird's.
The sandbars on the Miss River between Wickliffe and Columbus are just now
coming out but do not yet afford anything other than good resting habitat. With
great weather, we saw little on the bars of interest. One loose group of about
10 Miss Kites were still feeding north of Laketon.
All the decent habitat in the Lower Hickman Bottoms is dry except Lake No. 9,
but it appears that it will not be that great this year; it's actually still a
little high for peak shorebirds and most of the waders are feeding elsewhere.
The roost of Great Egrets off the Hickman overlook numbered at least 1000 birds
last night. Few other waders were seen coming in to it.
Ballard WMA is as dry as I've ever seen it; the best area for shorebirds at
Mitchell Lake is reduced to one large pool that was highlighted by 10 Stilt
Sandpipers, a single Buffy and 1 juv Sanderling on Sat. evening. Most of the
other bodies of water are also low, but only the small numbers of the commonest
shorebirds could be found there and we didn't see a single egret there.
In the passerine realm, highlights were 11 species of warblers and an
Olive-sided Flycatcher (latter near Obion WMA).
bpb, ebh, msm
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- » [birdky] RPT: West KY, Sept 4-5 - Palmer-Ball, Brainard (EEC)
