Saturday, November 9, 2002 Duck River and Big Sandy Units of the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge (Humphrey's and Henry Co., TN) 6am-5pm 162 miles For our November Big Day Chris Sloan and myself once again limited our search to the Duck River and Big Sandy units of the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge. The day started at 6 am at Duck River and ended at 5 pm at Paris Landing. Extremely windy and blustery conditions made bird finding very difficult. Although it was unseasonably warm, the wind made many of the passerines hunker down and caused large waves which, coupled to low light from overcast skies, made watefowl viewing next to impossible. Despite these conditions we persevered and ended up with some nice finds on the day. Although the passerine birding was slow at Duck River, species such as WINTER WREN, BROWN CREEPER and GOLDEN-CROWNED and RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS made a respectable showing as good numbers were found of each. Watefowl numbers on the refuge were outstanding. All of the expected dabblers were present, with the exception of wood duck, and several divers were also found such as LESSER SCAUP, HOODED MERGANSER, RING-NECKED DUCK and RUDDY DUCK. All of Tennessee's regular occurring geese species were also found with Chris having the good fortune of having a representative of each species in view in his scope at the same time. Only two ROSS' GOOSE were found while multiples of SNOW, CANADA and WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE were observed. Shorebirds put in a good showing at Duck River with 4 GREATER YELLOWLEGS being observed and one field held a flock of nearly 30 WILSON'S SNIPE, a single LEAST SANDPIPER and, the surprise find of the day, 3 AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. Another good find here was a single PALM WARBLER and 3 TREE SWALLOWS played in the wind. GREAT EGRETS were still around in numbers as about 10 were observed and the fields were full of AMERICAN PIPITS. Raptors seemed to enjoy the wind as we found NORTHERN HARRIER, BALD EAGLE, RED-SHOULDERED and RED-TAILED HAWKS, and the first of 3 SHARP-SHINNED HAWKS on the day. We left Duck River at about 10 am and headed straight to Pace Point. From the point we made another nice find for the day, a single adult PACIFIC LOON. BONAPARTE'S GULL, HORNED GREBE, COMMON LOON and GREATER SCAUP were other additions made from the point, but horrible lighting and bad wave action made viewing the large rafts of diving ducks farther out on the lake nearly impossible. In spite of the wind Pace Point provided a few more passerines with BROWN THRASHER and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW being added to the list. Also we found our only COOPER'S HAWK of the day near the maintenance shed harrassing a small flock of blackbirds. From Pace Point it was on to the the mouth of the Big Sandy River. Here we had some unusually good luck for the day when Chris found a FORSTER'S TERN sit down in front of a large flock of gulls. When he tried to show me the bird in his scope the first thing I saw was an adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL directly behind the tern. A nice two-for-one special! However, in contrast to last week the only other new birds found here were two DUNLIN. Britton Ford was a complete disappointment. There were very few ducks here period, never mind Canvasbacks or Redheads which we missed for the day. No LeConte's sparrows were in yet apparently, though we gave it our best shot and no longspurs were found using the stubble fields despite reports from earlier in the week. We fared no better at Paris Landing where we found the island devoid of birds with no apparent cause in the form of an eagle or falcon. We ended the day with 94 species and lots of misses. A little better weather and maybe we would have fared differently. Due to the weather many of the species observed were represented by single individuals. It was a truly difficult day to find birds, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. Good Birding! Jay Desgrosellier Nashville, TN =================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 =========================================================