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

Brainard hit the main highlights, but I think also noteworthy was a
single flock of up to 30 Black Terns headed south along the
Mississippi River, 5 Northern Pintail headed north along the
Mississippi, and 20+ scattered Mississippi Kites, mostly juveniles, on
Sep 5.

Mark Monroe
Louisville, KY

On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 9:09 AM, Palmer-Ball, Brainard (EEC)
<Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx> wrote:
> 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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