[TN-Bird] Fun birding day in East Tennessee
- From: "Ron Hoff" <aves7000@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "TN-bird" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 5 May 2012 19:13:08 -0400
TN-birders,
Frank Bills, Sharon Bostick, Dollyann Myers, & I went birding today and had a
really diverse and fun day. We started out at Sharp’s Ridge in Knox Co., only
to drive right into a heavy thundershower! We waited it out and even though
Sharp’s Ridge was slow and very cool, we managed to find a couple of Cape May
warblers, a Pine Warbler, and Blackpoll warblers, plus we got a great look at
our first Swainson’s Thrush of the season.
From here it was on to Cross Mountain in Campbell Co., to bird what we call the
“Golden-winged Warbler” bench, to see if we could find the Black-billed Cuckoo
that was found yesterday by several folks. We ran into Beth Schilling up there
but had no luck with the cuckoo. We did have a wonderful mix of warblers and a
bonus LEAST FLYCATCHER.
Then we drove down to Cove Lake, Campbell Co., to look for the Swainson’s
Warbler found there recently. We managed to hear 2 different birds and got good
scope looks at one.
Then it was on to the Golden Girls restaurant at the highway 61 exit in
Anderson Co., for lunch and a piece of birthday peanut-butter pie for me. Still
the best peanut-butter pie anywhere! .........oh yeah...birds. Then we went
over to the Eagle Bend fish hatchery in Anderson Co. to look for the
White-rumped Sandpipers that Chuck & Lola Estes had yesterday. Thankfully the
hatchery manager had left the gates open (the hatchery is normally closed on
the weekend) and we checked out several areas for the White-rumps but could NOT
find them. What we did find was about 50 Least Sandpipers, 9 Spotted Sands, 5
Lesser yellowlegs, 1 Great Yellowlegs, 1 Solitary Sand, a Wood Duck female with
12 young, and of all things, on the upper pond, a female RED-BREASTED MERGANSER
(our first ever at this site in all the years we have birded here and species
#165 for this site for us). What a fun day! Ain’t birdin’ great?
Great birding to all,
Ron Hoff & Dollyann Myers
Clinton, TN
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