[TN-Bird] ARK-TENN-MISS WEEKEND
- From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx, ARBIRD-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 08:45:37 EST
Dec. 13-14, 2003
Wapanocca Area-ARK
President's Island-Ensley-Robco-TN
Tunica Co.- MISS
The weekend started out messy with wind and rain and ended with a beautiful
sunset, no wind and great birds in between.
Arkansas
I traveled the back roads to Wapanocca NWR across the river and found the
Great Horned Owl is still using the area around Alligator Bayou and a lot of
Harriers and Kestrels filling the fields and telephone wires. White-crowned
Sparrows were numerous along the fence row brambles.
At Wapanocca the Snow Geese were leaving the roost on the lake in huge
numbers with most heading east. A few Vesper Sparrows have taken up their
regular
winter territories and a large flock of Pipits with a few Laps were found in
the
refuge. The ducks had taken to water to the south, out of the boiling mass of
geese and were too far away for much ID but I did have 12 species plus Pied
and Horned Grebe.
I went east to find the field where all the geese were collecting and in a
bean field found them stretched as far as one could see. In just the front
phalanx, I counted 84 Ross's Geese with the majority of those immatures. I
located
one small group of 27 Greater White-fronted Geese and a small group of Canada
Geese that had 4 Richardson's in the mix. These were small but no where near
as small as the bird I was to run into the next day. The numbers of Snow Geese
were impressive but not near the numbers I would find in Mississippi on
Sunday.
I traveled west seeing more and more Snow Geese and hearing a few
White-fronted. I found no Sandhill Cranes but did find 2 groups of Western
Meadowlarks
(9+6) and good flocks of Lapland Longspurs in almost every field, evidently
they
have not grouped up into the masses seen later in the year. Huge flocks of
blackbirds were seen at every turn and I did find over 100+ Brewer's for my
highest number ever in Ark.
The Wrens were represented by Carolina, Winter, House and a single Sedge I
jumped while walking the edge of a rice field where I had phished up 2
LeConte's. Sparrows were found in large mixed flocks at the ditch lines.
Tennessee
Sunday morning found me looking over the high and mighty Mississippi River
but seeing only a few DC Cormorants and Ring-billed Gulls. I went to President
Island and found most of the huge flock of Eurasian Collared Doves that feed on
the spilled grain there but the numbers were not near the 400 that sometime
collect in certain areas. McKellar Lake produce 1 imm. Herring Gull, 7
Bonaparte's and a bunch of Ring-billed.
Ensley was another story and as always has a surprise or two. The large flock
of Lesser Scaup was in a constant state of flux as birds came in and out to
roost after feeding on McKellar. You would get into a count only to have a few
hundred leave and more drop in. The best bird of the day was found sleeping in
the mix and even in the dim light was still enough for a photo when it woke
up. The bird is a female molting from immature plumage. These birds have
appeared at TVA Lake regularly over the years.
A most puzzling bird was found in with the Canada Geese, a very small
(Mallard size) Canada was seen and photographed. The only smaller Canada I've
ever
seen was a very dark Mallard sized bird that Steve McConnell and I found at
Wheeler NWR in Alabama, years ago. The small Canada Geese of the minima race
(Cackling Geese) are very dark. This bird was the right size but the breast was
lighter than I would expect. The bird also had the more rounded head of the
smaller race rather the flatten head seen on the medium sized Richardson's that
we
see in fair numbers around here. I have a few photos taken in the dim lighting
conditions but boy this bird was SMALL.
In the shorebird category besides Killdeer and hundreds of Least Sandpipers,
I photographed 2 Dunlin, 4 Lesser Yellowlegs and a Greater Yellowlegs. There
was a heavily marked immature Rufous Morph Red-tailed Hawk in the mix of
resting hawks.
Robco Lake looked like a coastal estuary with 200 White Pelicans, at least
that many DC Cormorants and hundreds of Ring-billed Gulls plus a few
Bonaparte's
feeding right up next to the road. There were thousands of ducks, mostly
Scaup and Ruddy but a few Canvasback and 2 Redheads made the Shelby Co. list of
17
species for the morning.
Mississippi
Tunica County was the best and the last for the weekend. I've never seen so
many species in such huge numbers at one time. Snow Geese flocks were immense
and some were seen at every turn with string upon skein in the air from the
north part of the county to Little Texas. Mixed blackbird flocks boiling up
from
the fields with well over 300 Brewer's counted. Huge flocks of Laps (2-3000)
in 3 locations with smaller flocks seen in any likely field. Western
Meadowlarks seen at 2 of the regular spots and 2 other locations, total
13-4-2-7.
Red-tailed Hawks, multiples never out of sight with one colored up as I've
never
seen before. Harriers and Kestrels galore. Savannah Sparrows in uncountable
numbers and late in the afternoon a few teed up LeConte's.
As evening approached, I decided to see if the Sandhills were returning to
one of the roost sites that I finally traced them to last year. At 4:40 I heard
that distinct warbling, gurgling and looked up to see 2 birds heading right at
me. They were joined by 5 birds and then 2 more and in the distance I saw a
long V of 56 birds. A few of the birds landed out in a field and had a short
pre-roost dance but the large group came in high and then wiffled down, not as
gracefully as geese but certainly acrobatic with the long legs akimbo as the
birds turned upside down in flight. I think the Scandinavian word wiffle is
perfect for this marvelous act. By 4:50 all was quite and the birds completely
out
of sight in a small slough/wet area where they would dream, crane dreams.
The sky had turned all those amazing colors seen in Whistlers paintings and I
rushed to my next meeting and followed Harrier Hawks to their roost. While
watching these birds swirl over this large field, I heard a Sandhill and
watched
as a single bird got up off a ditch line but unexpectantly flew west and out
of sight. I know there is another roost somewhere to the north but now maybe
even one to the west? At dusk a few Snow and White-fronted Geese tooted their
way to preappointed places and I heard a raspy bark that said the Short-eared
Owls were awake. One had taken up chasing a Harrier that had lingered too long
to select a bed. The Short-eared was by far the more maneuverable and
aggressively chased the Harrier all over the field. Two more Short-eared soared
high
in a twisting butterfly like dance before peeling off to their hunting grounds.
I had a thought on the way backed to the paved road to check out another dirt
road where Mike Resch and I had found the owls sitting in the middle of the
road last year. Just after I pulled off I found two Short-eared sitting fairly
close together until they decided to silently leave my headlights. A near
perfect weekend...........
Good Birding!!!
Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett, TN
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