Wildlife at Land Between the Lakes

Great Blue Heron

This Blue Heron flew in and landed on the West side of the Tennessee River Navigation Channel at Kentucky Lock and Dam, just a short distance from where we were standing under the US Hwy 62 Bridge.

He is between the bridge and the lock.

He didn't seem to mind the presence of several groups of people in close proximity.

I wasn't quick enough to catch him in flight; and, he never did anything exciting like catch a fish, although there were plenty of white-belly-up corpses of huge fish floating by that didn't survive the trip through the lock.

He just stood there, almost motionless, and was still there when we left quite some time later.

He is so close to the same color of the water and everything around him that, if I hadn't saw him land, I never would have known he was there.

There were hundreds, if not thousands, of American Bald Eagles at this place, soaring around above the churning waters and grabbing fish right out of the floodgates; but, they stayed so far off that they are only blurred likenesses even with a 500mm lens.

Photo taken from underneath the 2009 US Hwy 62 bridge, standing beside
the second pillar from the East, on the West side of the lock channel.
Left is North/downstream; right is South/upstream.

Tennessee River Navigation Channel
Kentucky Lock and Dam
Tennessee River Mile 22.4 (from the Ohio River)
Illinois Central Railroad Milepost 26.0 (from Paducah)
Grand Rivers
Livingston County, Kentucky
Land Between the Lakes Roadtrip
Wednesday_21-July-2021

Other than the fact that I was looking in the opposite direction, this photo was taken from the exact same spot and almost the same set of tracks I was standing in as this one:

photoshopelementsandmore.com/post/86279/thread

This is not a calendar masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination; brush and undergrowth concealed most of him from any other angle I tried; he is quite scroungy-looking and not doing anything interesting; this is just photographic proof that he was indeed there.

I have seen worse shots of people in their obituaries and as 8x10s sitting on their casket.

The Elk Herd at Elk & Bison Prairie

All Elk shots are Handheld 500mm at 160-yards, give or take a few feet from shot to shot.

All images have been cropped quite a bit.

On our first lap, we only saw a single solitary Elk (in an entirely different location), too far away for a picture; our second lap proved to be more productive; however, I had to act quick as they were fast disappearing into the timber.

If they hadn't been red as Sorrel horses, we might not have seen them at all.

The bull Elk don't look very impressive in July, as their antlers are in velvet and still developing.

Having cattle eartags and radio collars doesn't add much to realism; one would think in this day and age of high technology that they would implant a chip behind the animals ear that could be read from anywhere via satellite and thus have no need for all this old school eyesore means of identification.

I have no idea what the radio collars on some of the cows are all about; although not visible in these photos, close examination of other photos shows sharp pointed studs on each side of the box, I am assuming to prevent other animals from damaging the box.

You can also see an antenna, about a foot long, that looks to me like it could easily get torn off.

Satellite View shows a veterinarian barn and complex livestock working facility in the North-West corner of the enclosure, much like any decent cattle handling facility.

They claim that Elk and Bison were native to Kentucky, but I highly doubt that; what I know about Elk and Bison in their wild state is that there was little in this area that would appeal to them; Kentucky is far too wet and humid.

My great-great-grandpaw never mentioned seeing any Elk nor Buffalo.


Elk & Bison Prairie
Golden Pond - Trigg County - Kentucky
Land Between the Lakes Roadtrip
Wednesday_21-July-2021

Beautiful rich red coats on those elk.

Sadly no elk in Australia, but we do have deer of some sort that would have been imported by the British at some stage for hunting etc., which in some States now have gone feral.  There are plenty of feral camels 🐪 in the outback, one hump only, they seem to be able to survive quite well in the harsh conditions.

A very interesting narrative to accompany your pictures, BuckSkin.