There were still a few White-rumped Sandpipers at Curry Rd pond in Mercer
county a couple of days ago. They were still outnumbered by Semi-sands but
there location still held some water with Blue-winged Teal and Semi Plovers
keeping them company.
The Curry Road pond is an indication of what can show up if the habitat is
made available to them and has been a nice addition to the area. Hopefully
more land owners can construct similar ponds.
Ronan O’Carra
Lexington
On Fri, Jun 10, 2022 at 10:21 AM <brainard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
White-rumped Sandpiper is a sometimes overlooked late spring migrant in
our region. The species is not uncommon at all, especially during the
latter half of May. It is actually one of the few shorebirds that we see
more of during spring than during fall.
This year has been a particularly good one for White-rumps and their
migration apparently has continued well into June this year. It's not
unusual to still have some around in early June, but this past few days I
have seen a total of well more than 200 at various places. The remnant
pools at Morgan Pond in Christian County were covered with them on
Wednesday afternoon. In fact, at two of three pools it was pretty hard to
find a Semi Sandpiper among them! Yesterday afternoon at Horseshoe Road in
Henderson County, again they were present in above-average numbers for
early June.
It's always better to have dumb luck rather than no luck . . . yesterday
when I was scanning thru the flocks of peeps at Horseshoe Road, a shadow
passed along the ground right next to me. I looked up to see a white bird
passing overhead and figured it was some sort of egret. When I put the
binocs on it, I realized it was a Franklin's Gull . . . :-) As poorly as I
scan the sky any more (with floaters and aging eyes), I likely would have
never seen it otherwise.
I took some crummy photos of it because I had let the camera go to an
improper setting w/o checking it, but then promptly lost the bird in the
sky as it meandered north. I refound it about an hour later, still hawking
insects over the huge field. Franklin's often spend hours hawking insects
in the sky and when I left the area it was still out in the distance
cruising over the field. And of course I never got close enough after the
initial pass to get any decent photos once I had the camera set right . . .
bpb, Louisville
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