FreeLists / bristol-birds / [bristol-birds] Birds & stuff (leps, odes, herps) at South Holston Lake

[Dnldhlt@xxxxxxx]

     I gotta get a scope!  If it wasn't for speedboats chasing birds my way, 
I couldn't have identified a thing on the lake today.  I was at Musick's 
Campground hoping for holdovers from Rick's Redheads when I saw the flock of 
18 birds in the middle of the lake.  Time and luck brought them into range of 
my 8X32's, and they turned into 14 Lesser Scaup and 4 Ring-necked Ducks.  
They were joined by 6 Red-breasted Mergansers (only 1 male), and three 
American Wigeon.  There was also a flock of around a hundred Ring-billed 
Gulls on the shore near the state line.  Along with the usual assortment of 
land birds, there were five Tree Swallows checking out the gourds.  I didn't 
see the Eastern Screech Owl in the box.  There were also several butterflies 
around.  Besides a half-dozen Cabbage Whites (that were so pale they looked 
like West Virginia Whites in the wrong habitat), I also saw one fresh 
looking, winter-form Sleepy Orange, and one fresh Gray Hairstreak.
     Another good site today was the beaver pond under the Dam Road, I mean 
South Holston Dam Road.  It really is under the road and on both sides.  
Hunting only by permission from John Slagle according to the sign, so I'll 
call it Slagle Pond.  I saw the beaver, my first dragonflies of the year 
(some Common Green Darners), a few Wood Ducks, and Swamp Sparrows.  Frogs 
were calling loudly, mostly Spring Peepers, a few Mountain Chorus Frogs, and 
a couple of Pickerel Frogs.  Across the side road there is a farm pond and a 
marshy area.  One Swamp Sparrow in the marsh was sneaking up on a hubcap 
sized snapping turtle, to get a better look, I guess.  Around the edges of 
the farm pond there must have been about fifteen turtles just on the one side 
I could see.  I think they were Painted Turtles, though they seemed a little 
high domed to me, and I wasn't sure I could see markings on the neck.  One 
end of a  small culvert pipe under the road between Slagles Pond and the 
marshy area was a sunning site for a small, light brown water-type snake 
species that disappeared into the culvert as I walked by.  
     Not a bad day at all.  I hope you bird specialists out there don't mind 
hearing about a few other things with backbones or wings.  I couldn't find 
Noah to line 'em up for me.
            - Don Holt, Central, Carter Co., TN
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