April 13th, 2020
Victor and I had a really pretty adult FRANKLIN’S GULL drop in along
Refuge Road at the Duck River Unit of the TNWR while we were there
this afternoon. It was resting with a group of 30 Caspian Terns, but wasn’t
there long before it picked up and circled up high. This was the 5th Gull
species for the day which is a bit unusual in mid-April. (We also had seen
the three Lesser Black-backs and a dozen or so Herring Gulls at Old Hickory
Lake as well as a single Bonaparte’s Gull in alternate plumage with the
Franklin’s).
As the Franklin’s was leaving we noticed a group of three BAIRD’S
SANDPIPERS that had materialized on the mudflats nearby with Yellowlegs and
Least Sandpiper where they hadn’t been a few minutes earlier.
Good birding, Ruben Stoll, Centerville Tennessee.
