[TN-Bird] Long Weekend
- From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 19:00:43 EST
Nov. 8-9-10-11, 2002
Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge
Lauderdale Co.
Reelfoot Area
Lake and Obion Co.
Pace Point area
Henry and Benton Co.
Nashville, TN -Hummer Country
The relentless winds tried every way it could to put a damper on the birding
over the weekend but company like Charlie (mountain man) Muise, Ken (Florida
Flatlander) Allen, Kentucky escapee Hap Chambers, the McKenzie boys Mike Todd
and Don Manning, and the Chattanooga Choo-Choo group precluded it having any
dampening effect. I could complain about what we missed and not checking off
any more on Charlie's list but adding a new bird to my state life list and
three to my Year list was not too shabby.
It started late in the afternoon at Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge, where I was
joined by Charlie and by dark we had listed 3 species of geese plus 14
species of ducks with a dark ibis to boot. We were back early on Saturday but
added nothing new and could not find the ibis for better looks and ID. I
returned late on Monday and had a single Red-breasted Merganser in with a
larger group of Canvasbacks.
Later at Tiptonville Landing, we encountered a large group of Ring-billed,
Herring and Bonaparte's Gulls plus 23 Franklin's gulls and snowy piles of
White Pelicans. We got one bird off of Charlie's wish list the Franklin's.
We almost had to lean into the wind at the Smith's Field where Charlie and
Nancy Moore had flushed a few Smith's Longspurs from the marginal habitat
only the day before. Charlie commented on how few birds were in the field
from the previous day and we were snookered on the Smith's Longspurs. Horned
Larks were everywhere in good numbers along with pipits. Charlie and I
marveled at a small Speckled King Snake he caught and we both stepped back
when we came across a nice Cottonmouth that I almost stepped on. It was
immediately caught by Nancy (witchy woman) Moore and her snake pole and then
gently returned to the water. Another specimen that Charlie wanted to see was
off the want list.
At all the viewing areas we were treated by white capping waves and saw
bobbing black dots only. We did get to watch a large group of Double-crested
Cormorants in a feeding frenzy accompanied by a few White Pelicans and gulls.
As Charlie noted every third bird had a fish when they surfaced. All the fish
taken were shad over the period of time we watched but I'd bet you could not
convince the fishermen that they were actually helping the lake out rather
than eating game-fish.
We made it to Port Road late on Saturday afternoon only to be confronted with
distant dots flashing on the waves. Lots of loons but nothing of importance.
We had breakfast with Ken and Hap Sunday morning and went back to Port and
Trailer Roads with winds still chopping the surface of the waters and hiding
anything of note. I had made the bad choice of staying on the west shore
rather than going to the Point first. We almost made up for my bad judgment
at Britton Ford where we counted 9 Franklin's Gulls and in one view of the
scope, stood 4 species of geese plus we had a group of Snow and Ross's drop
in on us, slowly circling giving us great comparisons of the two species in
the air. Black Duck numbers were up but overall waterfowl numbers were down
at that time.
At the new mud flats to the south we had lots of distant birds and we got an
exciting call from a more excited Chris Sloan telling of the Broad-tailed
Hummer in Nashville. We were breaking up so bad I had to drive all the way
out to the point to get a good signal and the details on the hummer sighting.
We had at least two immature Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the area but dipped
on the Eared Grebe that Mike and Don had had earlier and no scoters. Charlie
had a long drive home and opted to leave and the rest of us were chomping at
the bit to go too but I don't like to waste good birding time driving. I
decided to give the hummer a little time to get over the capture and thought
it might need to tank up before roost time.
We went to Rocky Point where the first distant loon I got on I was sure was a
Pacific floating away from us. We went farther south and soon had that
Pacific and then another in view at the same time. Nothing else could be
found and the distant Nashville bird pulled on us. We left Ken and Hap to the
scanning and started toward the Music Highway. Ken later gave me a report
from the eagle roost that he had counted 29 Bald and 2 Golden Eagles going
into the pine trees.
At Nashville we met Charlie and waited till dark for naught. I decided to
stay over and lucked up with number 367 and enjoyed the colorful Broad-tailed
with Jan Shaw and her mother, Hazel Cassel and then the Chattanooga Choo-Choo
arrived. The Choo-Choo pulled out to go find the Great White Heron and I
headed back to Pace for a look around followed with a run back to Lauderdale
Waterfowl Refuge. Not much new found at either place and I headed home with
108 check marks on the field card (21 species of waterfowl with no scoters)
and with a big asterisk by number 367, Thanks Chris.
Good Birding!!!
Jeff R. Wilson
OL' COOT / TLBA
Bartlett Tenn.
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958
=========================================================
Other related posts:
