Between Spring Showers

Red-tailed Hawk

Spring has been so indecisive this year. One day the sun shines and temps are in the 60s or 70s, and the next day a cold front sweeps through, leaving heavy rain and/or snow, with temps back in the 30s. Events scheduled for Saturdays have been hit hard, having been changed twice because of predicted rain all day on Saturdays. This week, we have had a couple days of warm, but very windy weather, so I decided to go out. Local birders are reporting some rare species coming through our area, and I wanted to see if I could find any of them.

Song Sparrow

Beckley Creek Park is a favorite birding spot along Floyd's Fork river, and birders have found several Virginia Rails in the wetlands. I joined a group of people already there, and although I didn't see the Rail yesterday, I did find a Wilson's Snipe all by myself. Yeah! Mostly I found Song Sparrows and Red-winged Blackbirds.

American Kestrel

The raptors enjoyed the clear skies, and I saw many Turkey Vultures, a Red-tailed Hawk, and a fast little American Kestrel. Maybe I'll try for the Rail again tomorrow.

Sora

The Sora is a member of the rail family too, passing through Kentucky on its way to Canada where it breeds after spending the winter along the Gulf Coast. This one is using the bird observation area at the Falls of the Ohio State Park, just across the river, as a resting spot. It is sheltered from observation, except for people inside the building. There is a little pond and rocks to shelter in. So far, it seems pretty happy there.

Nesting Bald Eagle

4 or 5 years ago, when they started building a bridge across the Ohio River at the eastern edge of the county, an existing Eagle nest was found right by the construction area. Will all the activity affect it? They couldn't really move the planned bridge, so they just started building. Now the bridge is complete, and the birds seem unaffected. She seems to be counting the cars as they zoom beneath her tree.

The river has flooded again in the last week, after the huge floods in March, so people are trying to ge things cleared up. The gates on the McAlpin Dam are still lifted allowing the water to flow through as fast as possible. Debris clogs the sidewalks leading down to the fossil beds at the Falls of the Ohio, but that's not too much of an issue yet, since the fossil beds themselves are still under water. Management at the state park don't hurry to clear away debris in the spring since it can reappear so quickly.

 The river is still high and so muddy that it looks like milk chocolate rather than water!

The Kentucky Derby is the first Saturday in May, and the party starts two weeks before the race itself. This year it's starting even earlier since someone erected this giant ferris wheel within the ramp of the Big Four Bridge. The Bridge attracts huge numbers of people wanting to walk across the river. The ferris wheel will be here until after Derby. As soon as there is a nice evening with a good sunset, we plan to go down and ride it too!

Here is the little Sora enjoying an algae snack from the pond.

A Gathering of Eagles

We saw lots of variety and action among the eagles this weekend in Western Kentucky. KY Fish and Wildlife has been putting radio transmitters on some eagles in the last couple years to see where they actually go, and they have gotten good data, but sadly, the birds don't seem to be living very long, something NOT related to the transmitter, but something that can be recorded accurately with the transmitter. In 2014 they found 131 active nests in the state, and everyone's very excited with the numbers. Young birds travel in all directions, some up north, even as far as Canada, and some going to the south. The one mature bird they tracked had a large territory (about 15 X 16 miles). There were other pairs there as well, and he always flew wide of their nests to avoid attack. We especially enjoyed the many varieties of brown and white in the immature birds until they get their white heads and tails at age 5.

If you can find two birds sitting side by side, like this, you can guess their gender just by looking - the larger bird on the left is the female. But it's hard to catch them like this!

We saw some really good activity among the eagles. These two are definitely love birds!

Next they will work to improve a nest from last year, or maybe start a new nest. It's amazing to watch them select and carry the sticks to the nest site.

It's early in the season, but we did see one bird on the nest already, unless she's considering new wallpaper patterns!

I love the flight patterns. Total count for our weekend - 8 birding on Saturday morning, 38 from the boat that afternoon, and 82 at Ballard WMA this morning! Woo-Hoo! 128 altogether!

This morning we took an early van ride from the park to Ballard Wildlife Management Area. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife manages this area along the Ohio River near the confluence with the Mississippi (and many others across the state), not for the benefit of the wildlife, but for the hunters who pay fees for licenses. It's been pretty cold all weekend - down in the single digits most mornings - and the shallow ponds were frozen, except for a few open areas where all the ducks congregated. Yes, that's where the eagles gathered too! At one point we found 22 eagles gathered around an open pond to hunt for ducks. Some were even standing around on the ice! Of course, you could only get photos of this from the other side of the school bus we rode, but I sneaked a few views between all the heads.

Back at the Camera Again

It's been a long time since I birded or posted to this blog, but we've spent more time as grandparents and entertaining for the holidays, so sorry 'bout that. But this weekend will make up for the lack. It's Eagle Weekend at Kentucky Dam Village State Park on Kentucky Lake. RROKI is doing the program this evening, but the rest of the time is our own. I've become a big fan of Jim Johnson (http://goatsass.com/blog/) who lives down here and has the discipline and dedication to go out every morning to watch for birds and take absolutely phenomenal photos of them. He also posts to his blog every day. So, when we planned to come down, I contacted Jim and asked if we could go birding with him. What a good move that was!

We met him at frosty sunrise, for a guided tour of all the hot eagle spots around the lake. Every branch and blade of grass sparkled in the sunrise as steam rose from the river. Outside temp? Around 7 degrees (or maybe a bit less).

Jim knows where many eagles have nests, and we checked out several of them. There has been some nest construction going on, but not this morning.

The early sun added an orange tinge to this pair of Red-winged Hawks, hoping to catch a few rays and warm up before going on the hunt.

The Redheaded Woodpeckers were active - calling as they flitted from tree to tree. The Turkey Vultures were already flying from their roosting spot for the night, which seemed pretty early in the day to me.

Hundred of thousands of gulls (Ring-bills mostly, I think) gathered below the dam. Sometimes they flew too fast to get a good photo.

Jim's favorite spot below the dam is a popular spot for the Bald Eagles too. We found a pair perched on one side of the river while five more gathered on another tree on this side.

All the birds were fluffed up given the temps. After a few hours, I wished I had feathers to fluff up on my feet too.

Several times we watched an eagle enjoying his breakfast...

...then taking off to look for seconds. I must admit, I went for seconds at the breakfast bar in the lodge myself when we got back. That hot coffee sure tasted good! This afternoon we are taking the C.Q. Princess up the lake to look for more eagles, but we can go inside the yacht if it gets too cold and windy on deck. Now that's the way to go birding!

Eagles Weekend

I'm watching Superbowl 47 (can't handle those Roman numerals) with one eye, while editing photos and videos from Eagles Weekend with the other. (By the way, I'm cheering for the Baltimore Ravens, since they are the only bird team in the game!) The Eagles Weekend was terrific, by the way!

In a 10 mile stretch of shoreline, we saw 41 eagles from the comfort of the CQ Princess, the yacht that takes us on the lake for eagle viewing. When they began holding these weekends in the 1970's and 80s, they were lucky to see one or two eagles. Now we have a combination of resident birds, courting and laying eggs this time of year, and visiting birds who come from Minnesota and Wisconson to spend the winter here where the lake doesn't freeze. By March, only the resident eagles will remain.

Bald Eagles don't get their white head and tail until they turn five years old. Until then, they have various amounts of white mottling, and an expert can tell the age by the amount of white displayed. We had outstanding views of these younger birds practicing their courtship behavior - like teenagers practicing courtship and marriage. KY Fish and Wildlife estimates that we have over 100 breeding pairs in Kentucky now. Any lake large enough for a state park probably has a few.

Raptor Rehab did the Saturday night program. Everyone loved our one-winged Golden Eagle, Aurelia. We have to hold her carrier up to the perch, and she'll step out of it on her own. I love doing this program, since I caught the dream of working with raptors at weekends just like this. I hope we can inspire someone else to work with raptors too.

The last quarter moon was setting when we arose to catch the boat. Can't resist a photo of the moon whenever I can get one!

Eagle News!

When we went to Reel Foot Lake last week, we just enjoyed the beautiful fall weather and took photos of anything I could focus on. As often happens, I discovered something special while working with the photos on my computer that evening. One of the Bald Eagles had a radio transmitter on! I

sent the photo to David Haggard with TN State Parks, who sent it to Scott Somershoe, the TN State Ornithologist, who sent it to KY's State Avian Biologist, Kate Heyden. Here's what Kate says:

 "Remember “Missy”? The young rehabilitated bald eagle we deployed a transmitter on in August of 2011 which disappeared in October of 2011? Recall we had gone to west Tennessee to search for her after she stopped transmitting, but found no signs of her and wondered if her transmitter stopped working. Well, a young bald eagle was photographed at REEL FOOT Lake last week wearing a transmitter. The bird’s age and style of transmitter are correct and I can’t find any other young eagles that are currently being tracked that have been in that area recently. Thus, there’s a high probability that this bird is “Missy.” Too bad she is wearing a non-working transmitter, but I’m glad to see she’s OK. Our last locations from Missy were in this same area."

 Missy was rehabbed at RROKI in August 2011. Eileen Wicker of Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky says that of the three birds with transmitters, two of them were rehabbed at RROKI!

Meanwhile, Turner has flown to Alabama- that’s the furthest south he or any of our eagles have been. Chief Paduke continues to stick around his territory at Ballard.  See more about the transmitter project at:  http://fw.ky.gov/eagletrack.asp

When we rehab and release any bird, it's always with a prayer, since we have no way of knowing whether it will survive and do well or not, especially the young birds. It's wonderful to be able to learn something about one of our "alumni." Especially when I found it!!

Bald Eagles at Reel Foot Lake

Everyone recognizes our national symbol, the Bald Eagle, right? Most people know that they were on the endangered species list for many years. Before European settlers arrived in North American, an estimated  half-million Bald Eagles may have lived along every large river and concentration of lakes within North America, nesting in forty-five of the lower forty-eight states. Their numbers began to drop as they had to compete with people for territory and food through the 1800's. The pesticide DDT killed huge numbers of Eagles and other birds by making their eggs too thin to survive incubation.

Bald eagles were officially declared an endangered species in 1967 in all areas of the United States south of the 40th parallel, under a law that preceded the Endangered Species Act of 1973. On July 4, 1976, the US Fish and Wildlife Service officially listed the bald eagle as a national endangered species. By June 2007, they were officially removed from that list, having been re-introduced into their old territories by hacking, or releasing young birds, in appropriate areas. When the young birds reach the age of reproduction, they return to the area where they fledged to raise their own young.  The number of nesting pairs in the lower 48 United States increased 10-fold, from less than 450 in the early 1960s, to more than 4,500 adult bald eagle nesting pairs in the 1990s. In the Southeast, for example, there were about 980 breeding pairs in 1993, up from about 400 in 1981. The largest concentrations were in the states of Florida and Louisiana. Today, there are an estimated 9,789 nesting pairs of bald eagles. In Kentucky, we have an estimated population of 100 breeding pairs, including two nesting sites in Jefferson County.

No matter how many times you see a Bald Eagle in a raptor program, there is no thrill to match seeing them in the wild, doing what they were meant to do. At Reel Foot Lake in Tennessee yesterday, we must have seen at least 20 eagles, and it isn't even migration season yet. The numbers increase dramatically when they come down the Mississippi River to the warmer waters of Western Tennessee and Kentucky. At one point, we saw six of them in the air at once, flying around each other, touching talons, and generally looking pretty darn happy. It made us happy too! We were able to approach the adult bird at the top of the post within about 25 yards, and he just sat and posed in the sun for a long time before flying off. Someone who really knows his stuff can age a juvenile or sub-adult eagle by the patterns of white in its feathers, which change every year until maturity at 5 years of age. This bird with the dirty head is probably a 4 year old, and will grow completely white head and tail feathers next year.

Their beaks are dark as well as their feathers as youngsters, and as they mature, you can see the beaks and legs changing color too.

They love the open snags at the top of an old bald cypress tree for an "eagle's eye" view of the lake. Reel Foot State Park offers eagle viewing weekends in January. Reel Foot Lake is home to one of the largest wintering populations of eagles in the country. During the peak season (Jan.-Feb.) there can be as many as 200 eagles wintering on Reel Foot. The three Kentucky State Parks near Land Between the Lakes offer eagle weekend tours as well.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife personnel will often climb up into eagle nests (a dangerous move) to band the young eaglets before they fledge. Kentucky's Dept of Fish and Wildlife has attached satellite transmitters to several bald eagles to track their movements. The eagles wear a 70g solar-powered GPS-PTT satellite transmitter, attached externally, like a backpack with a Teflon harness. Solar panels recharge the transmitter's battery and we hope to receive three-five years of tracking data from each of these birds. The transmitter will not affect the eagle’s ability to fly, forage, or breed. Each transmitter, or tracking device, will allow KDFWR to follow the bald eagle’s movements and will provide information on the dispersal, home range, migration, roosting and foraging patterns, as well as, the survival of each eagle. In examining the photos I took, I saw that one of our birds had a radio transmitter on his back. (click to enlarge the photo for a closer view). Dave Haggard, long time eagle expert and our guide yesterday, said he would see if he could track this down.

 

Chief Paduke is the adult eagle (no, this photo isn't the Chief, but a bird I saw yesterday) currently being tracked in Kentucky, but the maps indicate that he's staying pretty much around the Paducah area. "Chief Paduke" was captured using a rocket-net at Ballard Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in western Kentucky on April 30, 2012. Chief is an adult male (at least 5 years old) and is known to nest on Ballard WMA. But Chief was already banded when captured! He had been rehabilitated in 2010 after he was illegally shot, which injured his wing. The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KDFWR) captured Chief after a landowner reported seeing an injured eagle and took him to Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky. After recovering from surgery, Chief was released in his nesting territory in late summer 2010.  WOW! I was volunteering at Raptor Rehab that summer, but didn't realize one of our birds was being tracked! Too cool!

Eagle Weekend

Once the CQ Princess finally made its way out into Kentucky Lake around the wreck, we cruised up and down the lake shore looking for eagles. Kate Heyden, Kentucky Fish and Wildlife avian biologist, was our spotter and narrator for the trip.

We learned that no bald eagles were found in Kentucky 40 years ago. In 1980 they "hacked" 44 young eagles at the lake. Eagles return to the area where they learned to fly when it's time to breed, so birds from somewhere else are brought in, and kept in boxes until they are ready to fledge. Juvenile eagles are brown, with mottled areas of white, for about 5 years when they are mature enough to breed and get their white heads and tails. During those years, they wander all over. Kate described a program to track young birds with radio transmitters. The results are mapped online at http://fw.ky.gov/navigation.aspx?cid=958. By 2011, she reported, we now have 98 breeding pairs of bald eagles in the state of Kentucky - almost any good sized lake will have some.

Some of the birds we saw are permanent residents, and they are into their courtship behavior and early nesting. Others migrate to Kentucky from northern states when cold weather freezes the lakes and rivers, making it harder to find food in their home territory.  It rarely gets cold enough here to freeze large bodies of water, and barge navigation keeps the channels open as well should a cold snap arrive. On our cruise, we saw about 27 eagles. In other years, up to 50 or 60 have been found in the same time. This year has been unusually warm up north. I heard they canceled parts of the winter festival in Minneapolis for lack of snow.

Our weather over the weekend was wonderful with blue skies and a strong wind in the morning which died down by noon. Everyone had lots of opportunities to tell the difference between eagles and turkey vultures. Look at the straight line of the eagle wings. A turkey vulture flies with its wings in a V - a dihedral. And sometimes the juvenile eagles have so much white on their bellies, you have to look closely to make sure it isn't a red tailed hawk, especially when they are far away.

After lunch, we piled into four vans to drive through Land Between the Lakes looking for eagles and any other wildlife we could spot. During the weekend Dick and I saw a red fox and red headed woodpeckers. As the sun began to set Saturday afternoon, we came to a popular roosting area for the eagles. With spotting scopes and binoculars we got a great look at about 30 birds coming in to spend the night, but it was far away so I didn't get any closeup photos of them. Every white spot in this picture is an adult bald eagle, and there are many that don't appear in the photo.

LBL is a long neck of land between Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake, run by the US Forest Service as a National Recreation Area. Summer is the time when most visitors enjoy camping, hiking, fishing, horseback riding, etc. Programs include a planetarium, nature center, an operating farm called the Homeplace, and a fenced bison and elk prairie, while white tailed deer and fallow deer roam freely.

We enjoyed the raptor programs presented at these eagle weekends for years. Once we saw the Little Rock, Arkansas, Zoo do the program, and a docent spoke without actually handing any of the birds. "I could do that!" I thought to myself. So when I retired a few years ago, I joined Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky as a volunteer, to get involved doing programs. At RROKI, however, you learn to do everything required for the care and rehabilitation of birds. It was a special thrill to me to return to the Eagle Weekend as a presenter, not just a visitor! We had 174 people at our program on Saturday evening, and many of them came up afterward for more questions and to take photos. Where else do you have a chance to see these magnificent birds up close and personal!

You Can't Get There From Here Anymore

Missing Bridge Span

Every January, the Kentucky State Parks sponsor Eagle Weekends at the three state parks near Land Between the Lakes in western Kentucky. Both resident and migrating Bald Eagles can be found via a cruise on the water or van rides to bays popular with these wonderful birds. Raptor Rehabilitation of Kentucky was asked to do the Saturday evening program at the Barkley Lake weekend, and I gladly volunteered. I became interested in doing raptor programs at just such a weekend several years ago, so now the circle has turned back to the beginning.

CQ Princess - Eagle Tours

However, when we arrived on Friday afternoon after a 4 hour drive from Louisville, we learned that an accident had occurred on the lake the night before. Normally it takes only 20 minutes to drive across an old bridge spanning Kentucky Lake between Lake Barkley State Park and Kenlake State Park where we would board the CQ Princess for the eagle cruise. The weekend planners tried to contact everyone who had signed up, and many cancelled out altogether. The red mark on this map shows where the bridge was, and the blue line the extra hour and a half detour we took to reach the Princess.

Land Between the Lakes - Western Kentucky

Kentucky Lake was created by the TVA in the 1940's when they dammed up the Tennessee River, making it navigable to barge traffic. All traffic must pass beneath a two-lane narrow bridge built in 1932. I've always hated that bridge! If a semi comes across, there is hardly room for my car! Two sections of the Eggner Ferry Bridge, were destroyed by the northbound Delta Mariner, a 312-foot ship carrying rocket components from Decatur, Ala., to Cape Canaveral in Florida. This ship is much much taller than the normal barge traffic. A fully-loaded barge is 1200 feet long,  but the tow boat is the tallest part.

Delta Mariner

During the dark, it tried to pass under one of the smaller spans designated for recreational traffic, instead of the larger span nearby. The local news said that two local pilots were on board. One can only speculate what the pilots and captain thought they were doing as tons of steel and pavement descended right in front of them. Fortunately, no motor vehicles went down into the lake when the road disappeared - one of my personal nightmares driving over bridges! The steel and pavement were easily seen draped over the bow of this huge ocean-going ship.

Coal Barge going under remaining bridge

Of course the Coast Guard closed the lake to all water traffic while barricades blocked vehicular traffic. At first, we thought our eagle cruise would have to go south along the lake, while we always went north in previous years. By the time we boarded the boat, the Coast Guard decided the bridge wasn't going to fall into the water, and started allowing the backed up barges and our tour boat to pass under the bridge. The bridge carries about 2,800 vehicles a day between Marshall County and the Land Between the Lakes, including many who travel to nearby Murray State University on a daily basis.  For us, the detour was a slight inconvenience, but those folks will have a very difficult time getting to work and school. The hard part will be deciding what to do after they remove the ship and debris. It makes no sense to me to "repair" an 80 year old bridge that was inadequate to begin with, but how will they find the money to replace the bridge with something big enough for traffic to go under it?

Yes, we saw eagles, and I'll show more about them in the next post!