Lake Barkley Naturalist and Recreation Blog

Everyday seems to reveal another blooming wildflower, budding tree, and singing bird at Lake Barkley State Resort Park. Dogwood trees seem to be in full bloom right now, and numerous wildflowers continue to bloom around the park. A single Fire Pink was spotted at the beginning of the week, and now they can be seen blooming around the park. Trillums, violets, larkspur, pennywort, and phlox continue to bloom around the park, especially along the Wilderness Trail.


Trilliums blooming along the Wilderness Trail

Besides the blooming wildflowers, the forest has been filled with singing birds. New birds heard or seen this week include Black-and-white Warblers, Northern Parula, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and Great Egrets. Yellow-throated Warblers and Eastern Phoebes have been here for at least a week and can be heard singing outside the lodge, cottages and trails. Eastern Bluebirds have been busy laying eggs, and an amazingly 52 out of the 59 nest boxes on the park have eggs already. If the weather stays nice it could be a record breaking year for bluebirds. Thank to Bob and Judy Peak for monitoring and caring for Lake Barkley’s Bluebird Trail.

I heard the first of the season Northern Parula (listen to their call here) just a few days ago and Yellow-throated Warblers can be heard singing around the park. Carolina Wrens and Bluebirds already have eggs, and the chickadees and titmice can be seen gathering nesting material.


Dwarf Larkspur, Spring Beauty, and Mayapple along the Wilderness Trail.

I took advantage of the warm weather and took an early morning hike on the Lake Barkley trails. Wildflowers are blooming all over the place, especially on the Wilderness trail. If you have the chance, get out on the trails and catch these wildflowers in full bloom. A single Fire Pink blooming and hillsides of Dwarf Larkspur were the highlight of the hike.

Here is a list of what was blooming on March 26th •

Bluets
Dwarf Larkspur
Fire Pink
Pennywort
Phlox
Pussytoes
Rue Anenome
Spring Beauty
Trilliums
Violets

After spending some time in eastern KY, I returned to the familiar sounds of spring in western Kentucky. The unusually warm weather has lead to some early arrivals. Spring Beauty, Bluets, Pennywort, and Redbuds starting blooming on March 10th (10 days before the official start of Spring). The following week we spotted our first Zebra Swallowtail followed a few days later by a Tiger Swallowtail.

Migrating birds are also returning on a daily basis, Osprey have been seen reclaiming their nesting platforms and it won’t be long before we see eggs. The Kentucky Environmental Education Project (KEEP) maintains a camera focused on a Lake Barkley Osprey nest. In past years the camera has reveled fabulous views of nesting, incubating, and fledging Ospreys. You can check out their nest cam HERE.

I returned last week from a recreation workshop at beautiful Blue Licks Batllefield State Resort Park. If you get the chance I recommend a visit, the redbuds were blooming and lots of Field Sparrows singing. It was great to be around collegues and I learned a great bit from State Naturalist Ron Vanover, visit his blog site HERE. In addition to trail maintenance, geocaching, and birding I learned how to make this blog site better, so expect a better blog site in the future!

The sights and sounds of spring can be seen and heard around the park, although the "official" start to spring isn't until March 20th. The sun has been shining all day and the plants and animals have been taking advantage of the warm weather. Daffodils have been blooming for a few weeks now and Spring Beauty can be seen popping up here and there around the park. This morning the air was filled with singing Eastern Phoebes, Carolina Wrens, Blue jays and Eastern Bluebirds. A male and female Bluebird were seen staking their claim to a nest box near the lodge and two Canada Geese seem to be setting up shop on one of the islands off the west wing of the lodge. Pelicans and juncos are still around but not for long as spring is right around the corner.

Upcoming Events
A Tribute to Johnny Cash Dinner Theatre
March 10th
Tickets still available! $35/person

Wildlife Weekend - Warblers
April 20 - 22nd
Join us in search of early spring migrants.
$50/person includes a weekend filled with birding activities including hot spot tours, bird hikes, live birds of prey program, breakfast with the birds, and more!

1-800-325-1708 or mary.schmidt@ky.gov for more information