Lake Trashmore

Black-crowned Night Heron

Our friend Pam from the Beckham Birding Club, is a professional photographer and a great birder. Last year she made a presentation to the club about a place behind a shopping center that I'd never heard of, and had wonderful photos to go with it. So yesterday, we decided to check it out. The South Beargrass Creek Retention Basin is purportedly run by MSD, and is bordered by rows of apartment buildings on one side and big shopping centers on the other side. Not an enticing place for birds, yo think. The South Branch has been completely channelized, and runs in straight lines, often through open concrete viaducts. This basin has a surprising amount of water, but I could never find a place where water flowed into it. Anyway, for a trashy lake, it had some pretty nice birds, including 3 Black-crowned Night Herons. I used to see them all the time at the Falls of the Ohio, and they nested in a residential area near U of L for a while, but eBird lists them as infrequent. 

Great Blue Heron

Great Egret

 Two Great Blue Herons and a Great Egret were the largest birds, flying from one end of the lake to the other as we walked along. You can see why I call it Lake Trashmore. I don't understand why people would dump stolen grocery carts and garbage cans in the lake, or how they ever got to it with their loot. The birds just ignored it.

Canada Goose Family

Goose teenagers with chinstrap

Gander showing his displeasure at our presence

 There was a large population of Canada Geese, taking walks with their families or just chatting with the neighbors in the lake. This gander was definitely defending his family, so we gladly stayed 6 feet away from him, wondering if that would be enough.

 

For some reason, about 30 geese on the lake when we arrived decided it was time to leave, so they did. I hope it wasn't something we said.

Crooked Necked Goose

We thought this one was just being threatening, but as he walked away, we saw that his neck was crooked all the time. 

Red-winged Blackbird - "go away!"

Red shoulders

Dive bomber

 Lots of Red-winged Blackbirds were on the nest, and the males chased each other everywhere. It is pretty impressive to see these big red headlights coming at you. I guess we were a little to close to the nest of one bird, who actually flew circles around us until we walked away. Poor guy, maybe next time they will nest farther away from the road.

Killdeer and grocery cart

 At one end of the lake, there were rocks and shallow pools of water. This would be perfect for Killdeers, I thought, and sure enough, we found one and heard another. Again, they didn't seem to mind the trash.

Mystery Flycatcher

Flycatchers placed themselves around the lake, belting out "which beer?" as loud as they could. I asked the birders group and they thought it might be an Olive-sided Flycatcher. They all look the same to me. Wow, this is my 15th blog post in the month of May. I've never done that before! With the COVID quarantine, going outside to walk (or bird) is about all you can do when cabin fever hits. And Spring has lasted longer than usual. Today summer moves in though, with temps in the high 80's and thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. Well, we knew it wouldn't last.