We woke up early and it was freezing cold outside. No precipitation, but frigid and unwelcoming. There were several basketball teams staying in the hotel. I made a waffle for breakfast, then hot coffee paved the way to reach our car. Brrrr. It was cold.
Berry spotted our first Black Vulture of the trip, on our way to the Peabody Wildlife Management Area. And a superb looking bird it was. Jet black with white fingers on its wingtips. Majestic as it soared. We had only seen Turkey Vultures before this.
The Peabody Wildlife Management Area has hundreds of cattail-rimmed tailing ponds, swampland reclaimed from previously concluded mining operations. We saw huge flocks of Red Winged Blackbirds, swirling above the reeds. Robert found a Swamp Sparrow near the water. And a beautiful Red Shouldered Hawk swooped down and away from us. It was busy, birdwatching there.
They do not want hunters to shoot Wild Turkey in Kentucky. Please don't. And if you do, there is a fine of $500 in the state of Kentucky. $500 for shooting a Wild Turkey.
DON'T SHOOT A WILD TURKEY
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This really is "coal country" and we saw plenty of gigantic coal trucks traveling in convoys, enormous mining operations with trains carrying away the coal and the smokestacks of a very large power plant receiving shipments of coal. When the harsh wind and bitter cold of the Peabody swamps got to be too much, we found a small cafe and had coffee and did a crossword puzzle to get warm.
We often drive down country roads and non-descript side roads in search of birds. Once we skirted along the side of an Army Small-Arms Firing Range and found an Ovenbird in the underbrush. Some local fellow was driving covered wagons drawn by mules along the road. We heard the tapping of a Hairy Woodpecker, then followed him as he went slowly up the tree. In that same part of the forest I saw a Yellow Rumped Warbler.
The cadence of wildlife venues (swamp - forest - shooting range ) did not facilitate us eating a sit-down lunch in a civilized restaurant. So Berry and I got fried chicken, an apple, almonds and drinks at a grocery store and toted them into the woods. This was a stroke of genius, because we stopped briefly between birds, in front of a handsome cattail-framed bog, and ate lunch in the car.
Here is a list of all the birds we saw today.
Making our way south past the Cumberland River, we birded the northern part of the Land-Between-the-Lakes. This is a large peninsula surrounded by two large lakes. Starting at the shoreline there at Kuttawa, we saw the American Coots. These were the first birds willing to swim in the very cold water since we got to Kentucky. It is appreciably warmer in Kuttawa than in the coal filled mountains around Bowling Green. The town of Kuttawa has a nice stand of hardwood trees, so we saw the American Goldfinch nibbling gumballs on a gumball tree. House Finches were playing in the dirt. A Hairy Woodpecker and a Red Bellied Woodpecker both tapped on the trees in front of us. A wonderful White Breasted Nuthatch climbed up and down the trunk.
In the harbor there at Kuttawa there is a large heron rookery. November is between the breeding seasons, but we did identify both the Great Blue Heron and the Yellow Crowned Night Heron. Ring Billed Gulls patrolled the open water. I photographed one Yellow Crowned Night Heron on the roof of the marina.
Yellow Crowned Night Heron
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Our final stop of the day was at an Elk and Bison Preserve. This entailed a short car tour allowing us to see and photograph wild elk and bison. There were supposed to be 43 elk and 70 bison in the preserve. The very large elk were in small pockets of two or three. The bison formed a large herd, when we saw them. Very impressive. You had to stay inside your car for safety.
Elk
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Bison
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Robert and Berry
photos courtesy of bshelton, rfowler
