My Barred Owl Experience

I wanted to share an exciting experience that I had last week. I had gone to the Anchorage Trail in Anchorage, KY basically in search of warblers. Boy did I get a nice surprise! I was walking along the main trail when I noticed a large bird flying from the ground up to a tree just a few feet off of the trail. I initially thought Hawk, but quickly discovered it was a Barred Owl! I have heard them calling there before, but never have I caught a glimpse of one! 

Barred Owl

I have heard from some other local birders that frequent the Anchorage Trail that Barred Owls have been spotted.



Barred Owl

This Owl must have been pretty comfortable with people, because he flew to this tree and sat for several minutes right above the trail. He watched as a walker passed right under him!

Posted in: Anchorage Trail,Barred Owl

Wood Stork at Anchorage Trail

A juvenile Wood Stork was seen at the Anchorage Trail by Jane and Pat Bell on Tuesday and they were kind enough to share the photo below.  These birds are not usual visitors to our area and are most closely associated with the Gulf area.  The bird did not stick around long so congrats to Jane and Pat for a great find.

The photo below is from the USFWS and gives a little better look at a Wood Stork. 

Posted in: Anchorage Trail,Wood Stork

A Most Wonderful time of the year!

Hello all! I am supposed to be packing for a weekend camping trip to Lake Cumberland, but I had to get a blog post in! It has been such a busy time!
I spent the first few weeks of May trying to hit as many field trips with the Beckham Bird Club as possible! I wanted to share a few of my pics and some links to my smugmug galleries from these field trips.

I joined BBC for a field trip to Black Acre Nature Preserve in Louisville, KY on April 28, 2012.
It was my first time to visit Black Acre and I really liked it, I will be back! Probably, one of the most interesting things I saw on this trip was a Grasshopper Sparrow spotted by our leader Michael Autin!

Grasshopper Sparrow

On April 29, 2012 I went on a field trip to Falls of the Ohio (one of my favorite places) led by Rob Lane! 

We saw many birds at Ashland Park, near Falls of the Ohio State Park! It was deemed a mini fallout! Many warblers, Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, Baltimore and Orchard Orioles! It was a great trip!

Baltimore Oriole

May 5, 2012 I joined BBC again for a field trip to the Anchorage Trail (another of my favorites) led by Pat and Jane Bell!

This one started out slow, but we ended up seeing several Warblers, Gnatcatchers, Orioles and many other things. We even saw a few Baltimore Oriole nests and a Blue-gray gnatcatcher nest! Pretty cool!

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

Indigo Bunting

The last field trip I visited was to Joe Creason Park/ Beargrass Nature Preserve led by Barbara Woerner! 

 Again, a first for me! Great place! We saw several cool things there, including a Bay-breasted Warbler and Olive-sided Flycatcher, both lifers for me!

Skink (Travis help me out here, I don't know what kind)

Olive-sided Flycatcher

Bay-breasted Warbler

Feel free to check out any of my galleries on Smugmug and leave a comment if you like! I have pics on there from our first day in Smoky Mountains National Park! I still have 3 more days of photos to get posted! It was a great trip, we actually saw some Bears this time! 

I also wanted to update you on the various nest cams I have been checking on! 

The KEEP Osprey nest cam  is streaming live now, and they have three chicks that hatched a little more than a week ago! I just love Ospreys! 

The Louisville Osprey nest did not have chicks as of last week, but I expect to have them pretty soon, as I feel that our Ospreys are about a week behind Lake Barkley's! I don't think I will be able to get down there today, since we are leaving for Lake Cumberland this afternoon! I will check on them Tuesday!

The Eagle chicks on the Decorah, Iowa nest cam are now eight weeks old, and jumping around excercising their wings, termed, wingercizing! It never ceases to amaze me how fast birds grow! They will fledge soon! 

The eagle nest in Louisville has one chick that we know of! It was reported on April 16, 2012 by Tom and Colleen Becker. Luckily, the wind was blowing just enough to allow them a view of the nest through the leaves. Reportedly, there were two eggs in the nest! We will just have to wait to see them after fledging, since the leaves are so thick! 

Here at my house, we have seen our first brood of House Sparrows and Starlings! I know neither are native, but the babies are so cute and fun to watch! I got a birdbath for my birthday and the baby Starlings are loving it!

Hopefully, I will have some good sightings to report from Lake Cumberland! Enjoy your Memorial Weekend! 

Posted in: Anchorage Trail,Baltimore Oriole,Bay-breasted Warbler,Blackacre Nature Preserve,Blue-gray Gnatcatcher,Grasshopper Sparrow,Indigo Bunting,Joe Creason Park,Olive-sided Flycatcher

Fall Colors

Fall colors have been popping up around Louisville. It's a beautiful time of year and I love being outside as much as possible right now! I recently went on a walk with my daughter around the Anchorage Walking Trail and we even visited the church memorial down the street. As I was leaving the church, the light was just shining beautifully on this tree changing colors.



Mums are also out right now...



It's pumpkin pickin' time! I really enjoy Gallrein Farm in Shelbyville. A small time farm with an abundance of charm.








And my most favorite part of fall colors.... sunsets. I swear they're more brilliant in the fall!

Posted in: Anchorage Trail,Cron field,Fall,Flowers

Anchorage Trail

My wife and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we have been having and headed out to Anchorage Trail this past weekend.  Anchorage Trail is a relatively new park in Louisville and it is not to be missed.  The trail has a little bit of everything; open grassy fields, wooded paths, swamps and more.  We parked at the Anchorage Presbyterian Church and followed the path along Evergreen Road that takes you into the park.  Check out the map below.



Anchorage Trail is a great place to go birding, so why not start with the birds?  A lot of the common songbirds were singing and foraging for food.  The highlight was a Golden-crowned Kinglet that I took several photos of, none of which were usable.  You gotta give me a break on this one though, those guys are constantly on the move.  Nevertheless, here are the birds I was able to get pictures of:

Carolina Chickadee

American Robin

White-breasted Nuthatch

There are a couple farm fields that border the park and I noticed a group of Turkey and Black Vultures on the ground eating something.  So I took chase.  Well not really.  They pretty much let me get within 15 feet before they got tired of me and flew off.

You can see below the "something" they were eating were two dead raccoons.

Black Vulture 

There were bushes with little dark berries on them that I couldn't identify (I'm a bird guy).  They birds were gobbling them up so I made it a point to look them up when I got home.  The best identification I could come up with was Farkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum) a bush in the same genus as Wild Blueberry.

Perhaps my favorite part about the Anchorage Loop is the large grassy field.  The field is a mix of native grasses with several paths going through and around it.  I plan on coming back and finding summer wildflowers and birds.

As mentioned before, there is a swampy area adjacent to a pond.  There is a nice boardwalk that goes out onto the swamp and I'm sure this area will be a great place for wildflowers and swallows in the next few months.  I saw this gnawed tree, a sign of beavers.

Then we found this dam near the boardwalk.

The result: flooded swampy woods.

Posted in: American Robin,Anchorage Trail,Carolina Chickadee,White-breasted Nuthatch