9/11/20 - Nashville
I didn't expect to do much birding this morning in Nashville, but hopped
over to the West Harpeth Greenway to again check the flooded field behind
Ensworth school. Roughly half an acre of their fields have been flooded for
many weeks, and it has been producing pretty good habitat for shorebirds to
drop in, though viewing can only be done from a distance. I've had many of
the expected common ones there, and hundreds of Killdeer, and I've just
been waiting for that good rarity to be standing there. Today was the end,
though - the bulldozers were filling it all in with huge piles of dirt. It
was inevitable, as it was a mud pit and this floodplain is meant for the
school's athletic fields, but one can't help but marvel at how cool it
would be for a high school to have a biology program that could observe
migratory shorebirds right on campus! I know, it's a pipe dream.
Largely to save my morning, I then hopped over to the Burch Reserve at
Warner Parks and after a slow start, and after running into Pam and Steve
Lasley, I found a mixed flock of warblers with a Nashville, 2 Tennessees,
and 2 Magnolias. But on following the mowed path through the meadow, I then
had a calling ALDER FLYCATCHER foraging in and out of the dense foliage
around the forest edge of the meadow. This has been my true Davidson County
nemesis bird, as I have had multiple non-vocal Traill's in the county
during migrations, and I just haven't had the ability to identify them
confidently. At long last, I got my Alder.
I got back home and immediately saw an eBird alert that Kirk Huffstater had
reported another long overdue County bird - WESTERN SANDPIPER - at the J.
Percy Priest Dam overlook. I rushed over there and located a small flock of
4 peeps containing 3 Leasts and a Western. Kirk had reported 3 Westerns and
a Least, so I emailed him to confirm that, and he was sure of those
numbers. Abra Osario was just out there as well, and was able to find only
one Western and one Least - so perhaps we are all seeing pieces of a
scattered larger flock which is foraging around the rocky shores in the
area. They blend in really well in the rocks - I didn't see them until I
got fairly close.
Anyone birding the overlook area should be advised that mosquitoes are
INSANE for some reason. I looked down from glassing the peeps and must have
had 20 of them on my legs. It was awful, so I hightailed it out of there.
Good birding!
Graham Gerdeman
Nashville
