[TN-Bird] Reelfoot Lake area today

From: Mark Greene <greenesnake@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 15:06:40 -0800 (PST)
Monday, January 27, 2014<br/>Lake, Obion, and Dyer Counties<br/>NW 
Tennessee<br/><br/>I headed towards Lake County this morning. On the drive up 
there I had 27 Sandhill Cranes flying just north of Dyersburg on Hwy 78.  
<br/><br/>This morning at around 10:30 I encountered a light-morph juvenile 
Ferruginous Hawk on Pea Ridge Rd in northern Lake County! I watched the bird 
for about 10 minutes as it flew out over the MS River slowly headed towards 
Missouri. I had stopped to look at a beautiful adult Krider's Red-tailed Hawk 
with an almost completely white head and tail when this bird flew overhead! I 
had another adult Krider's Red-tailed Hawk at Jolly Landing just to the east. 
Also several Western Meadowlarks & Lapland Longspurs around the immediate 
area.<br/><br/>I encountered HUGE flock of Lapland Longspurs (5000-6000 birds) 
near the north end of Van Works road. Birds  were feeding in winter wheat and 
soybean stubble fields with Horned Larks and Savannah
 Sparrows.  I heard a probable Chestnut-collared Longspur in the flock! I sat 
and waited for several minutes. Eventually the flock started landing all around 
me, even on the road! I heard the Chestnut-collared call again, much clearer 
this time but nearly impossible to tell where it was coming from with the 30+ 
mph winds! An hour later, I finally found the Chestnut-collared feeding in the 
ditch on the north side of the road. I got about a 30 second look before a 
truck came and flushed the entire flock into a corn stubble field.<br/><br/>I 
eventually made it over to Reelfoot Lake. There were thousands of Ring-billed 
and Bonaparte's Gulls around and I had more Herring Gulls on the lake than I've 
had in a long time - at least 20, all first winter birds.<br/><br/>Had all the 
usual diving ducks on the lake plus a couple of Am. White Pelicans. On Lake 
Drive, east of Blue Bank restaurant, I had a male Common Merganser with some 
Mallards. Out from the TWRA boat
 ramp near Samburg I had a distant look at a female Black Scoter.<br/><br/>On 
the drive back south, on Hwy 78 between the town of Bogota and the community of 
Broadmoor, I saw the 2nd largest group of Snow Geese that I've ever seen in 
Tennessee - at least 300,000! There were also at least 2000 Greater 
White-fronted Geese and at least 400 Ross's Geese in the flocks - very 
impressive!<br/><br/>It was bitterly cold today - around 20 degrees with a wind 
chill of about 3 degrees but the birding was red hot!<br/><br/>Good 
birding!<br/><br/>Mark Greene<br/>Trenton, TN<br/>Gibson 
County<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><a 
href="http://overview.mail.yahoo.com?.src=iOS";><br/><br/>Sent from Yahoo Mail 
for iPhone</a>
[TN-Bird] Reelfoot Lake area today

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