[birdky] RPT: West KY Sept 4-5 ... Swalow-tailed Kite ... there but gone

Mark Monroe, Eddie Huber and myself were in western KY Thurs-Fri. The highlight 
on Thursday was David's Mottled Duck at Lake No. 9, which we found late in the 
afternoon and watched for more than an hour, trying to get a look at all of the 
marks that make the ID. We left it Thursday evening loafing with a group of 
10-15 Mallards.
 
Our only other highlights on Thursday were 4 Black Terns at Camp #9 in Union 
County and the 3rd-yr Lesser Black-backed Gull at the Ky Dam Village marina. 
Grounded shorebirds were scarce and the remnants of Gustav probably had been 
wrung out of all its pelagic waifs. There were about 1200 Great Egrets that 
came to roost at the southern end of Lake No. 9 near dark, and we saw at least 
2 juv. Yellow-crowned Night-Herons along with a few Little Blues and Snowies.
 
We spent most of Friday on the Mississippi River, working the sandbars and 
river corridor from Travis WMA, north to the mouth of the Ohio River. Again, 
shorebirds and transient terns were essentially non-existent, with the few 
flocks of shorebirds we encountered consisting mainly of Killdeer, Least 
Sandipipers, and Pectoral Sandpipers. We did have a single American 
Golden-Plover, two flocks of 4 juv. Sanderlings each, and at least 2 juv 
Western Sandpipers. There were also a few hundred Great Egrets feeding and 
loafing on the bars and pools.
 
With Mark Monroe along, the skies were constantly being scanned for raptors. 
Although a pronounced movement of birds may be a week or two away, we did see a 
number of raptors, including the weekend's highlight. We were scanning for 
anything from the "new" Laketon Boat Ramp along Lower River Road in Carlisle 
County when Mark noted two birds kettling over the distant Missouri shoreline. 
One of the two birds was an adult Swallow-tailed Kite "I *kid* you not!" 
shouted Mark! ... or something like that. All three of us were soon on the bird 
and although distant, it was clearly visible as it swooped and soared among the 
treetops. We watched the bird for more than 1/2 hour, lamenting the fact that 
it was clearly over Mississippi County, Missouri, and would have to get at 
least half-way across the river to be a "KY" bird. We decided to move upstream 
to get a better look and within a couple of minutes of arriving on the KY shore 
farther north, Mark again had the bird in the scope, directly across from where 
we were. We all attempted digiscoping the bird for about 10 minutes before it 
began circling and gaining altitude, leaving behind the Mississippi Kite it had 
been loosely associating with. The bird began to stream south and we watched it 
glide that way for another 10 minutes as it slid over KY airspace along the 
river bank at Islands 2, 3, & 4 (one of those rare places where KY actually 
claims ownership on the *west* side of the Mississippi River! Eddie and I last 
lost the bird probably 3 miles or so to our south ...
 
Other highlights of the day were small numbers of Broad-winged Hawks ... 
probably something on the order of 15-25 Bald Eagles along that stretch of the 
river, and an Osprey.
 
Late in the afternoon we returned to the north end of Ky and Barkley Lakes, 
where there were now two 3rd-yr Lesser Black-backs and 2 juv. Laughing Gulls. A 
stop by Eddy Creek did not yield the Tricolored Heron, but we think we saw the 
4 White-rumped Sandpipers still there, along with more mudflat and common 
shorebirds.
 
BPB et al.

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