FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Ferruginous Hawk - No Show -

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

January 9, 2005
Tunica Co. MS
 
 
I met Mark Greene and Mike Todd in Memphis as Mark needed  the Ferruginous 
for MS and Mike wanted to try for some better photos. We  spent extended stints 
in the area where the bird has been hunting and perching,  staying late in the 
day, to see if it would come to roost, but no  luck. This does not mean the 
bird has left but it may have changed its feeding  location. If you are in the 
area please post, even if you are unsuccessful. 
 
We ran into Phillip Casteel and Mary Zimmerman from Nashville, and  
Mississippi's, Q. B. Gray and Wayne Patterson, they were also checking the  
area. Q.B. 
and Wayne did not find the bird and were with us at the dusk  watch. We don't 
know if the Nashville birders saw the bird or not. We did  enjoy a lot of Laps 
up close and went over to the Harrier Roost at dusk where we  had 20 plus 
going to bed and there enjoyed 5 Short-eared Owls going to work with  minimum 
barking and little tarrying around the area.
 
We made many wide searches through the county and enjoyed well over 100  
Red-tailed Hawks, 51 were counted from one view point, 11 in one tree and 9 in  
another. The one with 11 is the small tree that I've seen 13 in before and  we 
had 8 in a couple of weeks ago. It has consistently held multiple Red-tailed  
Hawks over the years and this area of catfish ponds, always has big  
concentrations of these Wind Masters.
 
In this group alone, we had 1 light morph Harlan's (big treat) and 1 dark  
Harlan's (the dark bird sported a beautiful white necklace) 3 Krider's, plus  
light morph Western and the expected Eastern Red-tails. Totals for the day 3  
Harlan's, the dark bird off Arkabutla Road has returned for the 3rd year and it 
 
is solid dark with just a mottled gray tail, 5 adult Krider's one put on a  
dazzling show, soaring slowly in the sun and flashing like a beacon, we  lost 
count of the Western and Eastern types. At any point in the day, you  could 
scan the trees around you and come up with multiple Red-tailed  Hawks.
 
We also had, 50+ Sandhill Cranes, 16+ Western Meadowlarks, their numbers  
seem to be down this year but we did have 11 in one group, 12 Vesper  Sparrows 
in 
3 locations, 4 Cooper's Hawks, 2 Bald Eagles, big numbers of  Kestrels and 
Loggerhead Shrike's, 5 Cackling Geese, hundreds of Ross's in  17 species of 
waterfowl. There was a spectacular air show put on by the Snow and  Greater 
White-fronted Geese, as all day they streamed across the sky, dropped in  like 
snow 
storms and flushed back into the sky with great rushes of air due  to hungry 
Eagles or coyotes. We did not spend much time with the horde of gulls  spread 
all over the county, that we saved for another day.  
Good  Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett,  TN



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