[TN-Bird] KY Lake; 9/22/08

9/22/08
KY Lake areas of Henry and Benton Co
Lick Creek (Benton); Pace Point, Britton Ford, Eagle Creek, Paris Landing 
(Henry)

What a difference a few days make. My last trip up I had decent numbers of 
shorebirds a couple of places; very few today. They have really dropped the 
level of the Lake considerably the last few days, it is now at 354.9.

I started the day off at the Big Sandy flats, which are expansive, but very 
dead. The only shorebirds were a single Lesser Yellowlegs, and a single 
molting adult American Golden-Plover in addition to maybe 20 Killdeer. 
Several gulls and Caspian Terns were sitting around in the distance, but 
nothing looked unusual.

I stopped by Lick Creek on the way to Pace Point. A few shorebirds were here 
including 4 Greater Yellowlegs, 5 Lesser Yellowlegs, 8 Pectorals, and about 
20 very distant peeps that all looked to be Least. Pace Point was next. One 
thing that struck me is a very productive area on the way in for sparrows, 
flycatchers, fall warblers, etc has been totally cleared out and improved I 
guess. This is the area of the creek crossing where we sometimes watch 
Eagles coming in to roost, for those of you familiar with it. All of the 
small trees and vegetation in this area is gone. Pace Point itself was 
practically devoid of birds. The low levels mean there is a substantial 
island all the way out to the big island; you can get out there without 
getting your feet wet already. Not a gull on the island, and only 1 Spotted 
Sandpiper and 5 Killdeer. A number of Pintail were roosting on the island 
though. Of course Ring-billed Gulls and Caspian Terns were flying around 
everywhere in the distance.

Britton Ford was also a disappointment. The area that help numbers of 
shorebirds last trip was down to 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Pectoral, and 5 
Least Sandpipers. Dabblers were all over the area still.

Eagle Creek was down to 5 juv. Semipalmated Plovers, I guess the same 2 juv. 
Baird's that have been there for a couple of weeks, 1 juv. Western, and 9 
Least Sandpipers. A few Caspians and Ring-billed's were roosting here.

Paris Landing was the hotspot, though nothing rare. The island is huge now 
and was covered in birds, having at least 1000 gulls and terns on or near 
it, mostly Ring-billed of course. It was impossible to really check 
everything because birds were stacked so tightly amid terrible heat waves. 
But among the Ringers were 189+ Caspian Terns! (more than that I know as I 
couldn't see all the birds on the backside of the island), many Forster's 
and few Common Terns, and at least one Black Tern. At least four Laughing 
Gulls were present (1 juv., 1 juv. on the way to 1st-winter, and two older 
birds I couldn't see well enough to know if they were adult or not). A few 
Herrings were present, including a very dark youngster. Lots of Pied-billed 
Grebes in the area, but nothing any better.

Still had 10 species of shorebirds, but they were tough. Amazingly, not a 
Semi Sand all day.

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd



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