For those of you who do not read TN birds and have an interest in KY shorebirds I thought I would copy Jeff Wilson's posts as dated below. He has been watching the KY Black-necked Stilts and their nest sites this summer. Hap July 5, 2004 The largest and most diverse shorebirds were found in Fulton Co. KY, late in the afternoon. There were 67 Black-necked Stilts total with 49 in one location. Most of the birds were unmatched males with a few couples sprinkled in. In the 4 locations I located 4 nests for sure and suspected a couple of more by some behavior witnessed. A lot of the birds were resting and laying on the ground and could have looked like they were nesting but they were not. One of the nests that I had located before had been flooded out and two of the eggs were left scattered. On the good side, one nest has hatched young, I only saw one but the parents were widely separated which might mean more. This nest is remote from the main colony. Other shorebirds located were;1 American Golden-Plover in basic plumage w/ photos (Hap Chambers and I had 3 a few years back about the same time and location in the same plumage), 16 Lesser Yellowlegs, 3 Least Sandpipers and 2 Pectoral Sandpipers w/ photos (these two were loners at two different locations). The last find before I had to start the almost 3 hour ride home at 6:30 was a full breeding plumaged Black Tern (ph) sitting on the flats. July 11, 2004 At three locations in KY, I had 9 Black-necked Stilts, down as I expected from the huge number of last week. There are 2 nests at one location as I watched for over an hour to see nest tending change overs. I suspected a third nest but no luck before I had to move on. A pair looked like they were just hanging out at another location, while a single flew over at another. I checked for the adults with young but their wet hole had dried and evidently they had led their charges away. I had 3 Pectoral and 5 Least to round out the list. I also counted over 200 Cliff Swallows feeding and perching over a field of flooded out corn stubble. July 18, 2004 Late, in Fulton Co. KY, I watched in fascination as Cliff Swallows flew in from every direction until one field was almost covered. There was only an occasional swallow of the other species but all were recorded. I tried to photograph the congregation but the distance prevented doing the numbers justice. I've seen larger numbers of Tree Swallows collect on the river later in the year but this was the largest number of Cliffs I've ever seen at one time, bar none. An estimate of 3,000 was about as close as I could come after blocking off sections two or three times. Occasionally they would boil up into the blue sky and reminded me of the huge flocks of Lapland Longspurs seen in north Mississippi during the winter. This was group small compared to the huge roosts or hundreds of thousands I've seen in Mexico and on the Mississippi, Louisiana Gulf Coast but for around here it was a spectacle. In another field a pair of Black-necked Stilts held close to a nest hidden in a field. Both were photographed through the scope with their necks stuck above the vegetation during a change of nest duties. This nest will hatch this week. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL'COOT / TLBA ================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBERS============== The BIRDKY Mailing List requires you to sign your messages with first & last name, city, & state abbreviation. -------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, send e-mail to: birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx -------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send e-mail to: birdky-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject line. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Kentucky Ornithological Society web site at http://www.biology.eku.edu/kos.htm * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * BIRDKY List Manager: Gary Ritchison, Richmond, KY E-mail: gary.ritchison@xxxxxxx