[TN-Bird] Radnor Lake, roosting nighthawk mobbed

From: "fekel" <fekel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2009 14:28:25 -0500
Radnor Lake State Natural Area
Davidson Co.
Nashville, TN
Saturday 2009 Oct. 10
7:10-9:40am
cloudy, chilly

Having some time to spend before heading down to Franklin
to search for dead people, I visited Radnor Lake this
morning.  I had hoped that there might be clear skies,
but the front moved too slowly.  Nevertheless, it was
a worthwhile morning.  The dam area was excellent again,
and as I began to observe, David Kirschke found me and
we birded together for much of the time.  I finished the
morning with 5 species of vireos, 13 species of warblers,
including an immature BLACKPOLL, which we saw well, but
NO BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER.  We also found grosbeaks,
sapsuckers, and thrushes.

However, the most interesting bird of the morning was none of
those species. At about bench 11 along the Lake Trail we heard
a lot of bird chatter and stopped to search for its cause.
High in the trees there appeared to be a great deal of bird
activity, and we wondered what was going on.  Often in these
instances I never find the reason for the excitement, but
this time as I scanned the area, I found the culprit.  To
my surprise it was a COMMON NIGHTHAWK.  It was roosting
lengthwise along a horizontal tree branch and trying to rest,
but it clearly was not having much luck.  As we watched for
about 10 minutes we saw a huge variety of birds attracted to
the vicinity. Leading the complaining charge were TUFTED
TITMICE, CAROLINA WRENs, and CAROLINA CHICKADEEs, as well as
BLUE JAYs, (one of which landed next to the nighthawk and
nearly pecked at it) a BROWN THRASHER and GRAY CATBIRD, plus
several types of warblers and vireos.  There must have been
at least 15-20 birds attracted to the scene.  Eventually the
excitement died down, and perhaps 45 minutes later when we
returned to the scene, the nighthawk was pointed in the opposite
direction along the branch, and there was no activity at all
around it.

Birds of interest included:
Broad-winged Hawk 1
Common Nighthawk 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 1
E. Wood Pewee 2
E. Phoebe     1
White-eyed Vireo 1
Yellow-throated Vireo 1
Blue-headed Vireo 1
Philadelphia Vireo 5
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Swainson's Thrush 2
Gray Catbird 1
Brown Thrasher 1
Cedar Waxwings 6

Warblers:
Blue-winged    1
Tennessee      6
N. Parula      2
Chestnut sided 2
Magnolia       4
Yellow rumped  2
Black-throated Green 8
Blackburninan  1
Bay-breasted   4
Blackpoll      1 im.
Black-and-white 2
Am Redstart     2
Common Yellowthroat 2

Rose breasted Grosbeak  5
American Goldfinch  33

Frank Fekel
Nashville, TN
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[TN-Bird] Radnor Lake, roosting nighthawk mobbed

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