August 29th, 2020
I spent parts of the last three days searching West TN for Hurricane
Laura birds with Victor and Flynn.
We started on Thursday evening at Mud Island in Memphis with no luck at
all, not surprisingly. The first bands of rain didn’t actually hit there
until it was too dark to see. We saw a couple of Nighthawks flying South
and several hundred Purple Martins headed North at roost time.
Friday morning we started by watching the Mississippi River at
Tiptonville Landing in Lake County with a fairly steady rain and a slow
start again. The first pay dirt came mid morning when Redwine reported a
SOOTY TERN over Reelfoot Lake and Mark Greene reported one simultaneously
just South of us on the Mississippi River. Victor and I didn’t know which
one to chase so we just stayed put. (It turned out Mark’s bird was seen
flying over Missouri sand for a second MO State record!) We found nothing
but a dozen Bald Eagles on our sand bar so we soon headed over to the lake.
Just before noon we finally saw two Sooties in the distance over the lake
but they quickly headed North and out of sight.
With things getting really slow and the storm falling apart over
Northern Louisiana and Southern Arkansas we decided to leave West TN and
hit Pickwick for an hour before dark. I figured this was too far away from
the storm to really expect anything but Victor thought with a band of
showers going through there it might still produce something.
As we arrived at the State Park we could immediately see good numbers of
Black Terns flying over the Lake and with a bit of glassing we picked out
an adult SOOTY TERN flying around with a dark juvenile tagging along
behind. On the railings near the lock there were over a hundred Ring-billed
Gulls lined up with a young LAUGHING GULL, a second/third year LESSER
BLACK-BACKED GULL and a juvenile HERRING GULL with the ringers.
With more good stuff at the dam than we had seen all day out West we
decided we should quickly get over to Bruton Branch where the best birds
usually are. In the fading afternoon light there and another band of
showers going through we picked out a Jaeger harassing Gulls and resting on
the lake in the distance to the South. Watching the bird for half an hour
or so until it got too dark we decided it was a Pom/Parasitic and likely a
Parasitic Jaeger but figured we should come back in the morning for better
looks.
This morning (August 29th) we returned to Bruton Branch with a boat to
find several of our friends already there and Alan Troyer had already
spotted two Jaegers far up the lake to the South. One of the Jaegers
disappeared early without ever being positively IDed but the other one
stayed around for most of the day and was quickly identified as a POMERINE
JAEGER. We aren’t sure but we think this could likely be the same bird we
saw last night.
Before we had time to get bored with the Jaegers Alan spotted an
“interesting bird” flying far up the lake that turned out to be a
BAND-RUMPED STORM-PETREL! (New State bird for me) We ended up taking turns
going out on the small boat for great looks and photos of both the Jaeger
and Storm-petrel and eventually of the Jaeger catching the Storm-petrel!
The smaller bird escaped that time but was getting pursued and growing ever
more tired and the jaeger hadn’t given up when we left at noon.
Several times through the forenoon we had single adult SOOTY TERNS fly
over. (Earlier in the morning Abra Osorio and Chris Agee had 3 Sooties
together near the dam) I would guess there were at least 4-5 different
individuals here.
Around noon Mike Todd called out a ROYAL TERN! passing and heading North
towards the dam a bit distant for photos but everyone there got decent
looks before it flew out of sight. Several of us tried to catch up with it
with the boat to try for photos but we never did see it again.
In spite of a bit of a slow start and some time
spent wandering in the wrong locations Hurricane Laura did not disappoint
in the end.
Ruben Stoll, Pleasantville Tennessee
