In contrast to Steve and Debbie Tyson’s birdy adventures in Logan County, our
place in Northern Franklin County is decisively not very birdy, migrant-wise,
except for blue jays. Not that I have anything against blue jays. I have gotten
over the day we witnessed a couple of blue jays raiding a Baltimore oriole’s
nest and eating the nestlings in Bourbon County. Yesterday, we did have one
each of yellow-billed cuckoo, gray catbird, and white-eyed vireo. We watched
the red-headed woodpeckers’ confrontations with a persistent starling who had
the audacity to enter and peep out of the red-head’s nesting hole! It was as if
it was taunting the woodpeckers. JB watched as one of those myriad blue jays
stole the acorns the woodpeckers were stashing! Mischievousness, pesky, and
opportunistic shenanigans! The most unusual find was the double-crested
cormorant flyover, a first for us here!
The other day, I spotted an immature red-shouldered hawk and a kestrel.
Otherwise,, it’s been a bit of a bust!
Joyce Fry, Northern Franklin County
Think Outdoors!
On Oct 1, 2023, at 7:50 PM, Stephen Tyson <kytysons9152@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
We counted 60 species, here at the house, through this lovely weekend. It
was foggy early yesterday but, otherwise, the weather was perfect.
We counted 10 Warbler species, including our first-of-season Bay-breasted on
Friday evening, FOS Yellow-rumped, yesterday, and FOS Nashville this morning.
Our birch trees continue to be a Warbler magnet; I’ve never seen so many
Tennessee Warblers in one place as were feeding in them early this morning.
A Gray-cheeked Thrush was calling in the pond thicket, this morning.
I got a look at our first-of-year Philadelphia Vireo, yesterday. It was only
our third record, here, but I was probably more surprised by the
White-crowned Sparrow that appeared in the drip bath, this morning. It beat
our earliest record by four days. We feed cracked corn when the winter
sparrows are here but I wasn’t anticipating this so, the feeder rocks were
bare. This bird is in adult plumage and seemed to know it’s way around “the
facilities”, so I hurried out with some cracked corn and it’s been back and
forth, to the rock near the drip-bath, feeding throughout the day.
Our Pewees, Indigo Buntings, and Hummingbirds are still here but the
Kingbirds and Great-crested Flycatchers seem to have headed south. I
couldn’t find summer Tanagers either, and the Flickers are streaming past in
increasing numbers, so, I guess the summer-to-winter turnover is finally
really happening.
Oh, and nearly every scope view, this morning, had a Monarch Butterfly drift
through it.
https://ebird.org/tripreport/160804
Stephen (Steve) Tyson, Schochoh, Logan Co., KY
