[birdky] RPT: Green River Lake CBC party results

From: Brainard.Palmer-Ball@xxxxxx
To: birdky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 5 Jan 2005 11:05:50 -0500
What a weird CBC season . . . yesterday was my third Christmas Count in a
row without the long johns on! Who would have thought that the coldest
counts would be some of the earliest ones (Louisville's count on Dec 19th
was actually more of a "late season count of migrants" than a true winter
count), and that weather would have been so severe in the mid-period to
cause re-scheduling of some, only to end in shirt sleeve weather for the
final week!

Yesterday was a VERY frustrating one on Green River Lake . . . there may not
have been much on the lake but Richard Cassell and I would have never known
it because of the combination of cold water and atmospheric conditions that
included warm, moist, barely-moving air that caused a Lord of the
Rings-esque appearance to the lake nearly the entire day.  A thick fog ebbed
and flowed back and forth with the light, sometimes lacking breezes.  At the
end of Corbins Bend Road, all we could see were a few foraging gulls.
Finally near day's end at the state park we were able to see a single Common
Loon and a few grebes, but at dusk the roosting gulls disappeared into the
fog as they settled in for the night.

On the flip side, there were some excellent passerine flocks in the rural
countryside around the south end of the lake. For the first time in a long
time I squeaked in a Gray fox (I seldom see these beautiful animals now that
coyotes dominate the landscape) and we saw/heard 4 Winter Wrens (usually
have to scrounge for even one).  This was the first area I've birded
recently where songbirds seemed to be in abundance and where you'd normally
expect them to be (thickets of cover).  I suspect that this area was just
far south enough not to have been affected significantly by the heavy
snow/ice cover that had most birds farther north trying to find food in
abnormal places rather than their typical haunts.  On the Otter Creek count
a few days ago just west-southwest of Louisville, these same types of
thickets had few birds -- which may have left for better opportunities
around habitations and had yet to return to their normal spots.

Our day tally was 53 species (we normally get into the mid-60s in our
territory), but the count will be low due to lack of waterfowl and raptors
(the day was simply too dreary to spot many).

More on other counts to come ...

bpb, Louisville
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[birdky] RPT: Green River Lake CBC party results

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