FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] TVA PONDS - De ja Vu all over again.....Robco Lake plus Tunica, MS

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

Jan. 6, 2007
TVA Ponds- Ensley Bottoms,
Shelby Co. TN,
Tunica Co. MS
 
I spent some time with a birder that I had met once before last January at  
the TVA Ponds. At that time we had a Peregrine put on a great show for us,  
hunting over the ponds. That bird was a small anatum type male and a lifer for  
him. Yesterday at TVA, while we were talking, I looked over his shoulder and  
spotted another Peregrine streaking in to perch on one of the towers, now only  
his second sighting.
 
This bird sat long enough for a few photos, showing it to be an immature  
male tundrius. The extreme stripped head pattern and transitional plumage were  
really confusing, plus seeing a band on one leg, made me think for a while  it 
might have been an escaped falconer's hybrid. We watched as it harassed a  
Red-tailed Hawk and then did a long sloping dive on some unlucky critter over  
near the pits. Two birders meeting at TVA Lake and 2 Peregrines almost exactly  
one year apart; pretty good timing I would say!!!
 
The Marsh Wren still responds to phishing and just a couple of Yellow-rumps  
hang out in the Phragmites.
 
Scopeing through the ducks at TVA, we came up with the following: 3100  
Lesser Scaup, 54 Greater Scaup, 116 Ring-necks (mostly females, must have been  
boys night out), 6 Canvasback, 5 Redhead, 1 male Hooded Merg, 3 Mallard, 5  
Gadwall, 7 Shovelers, 2 male Green-winged Teal, and 5 hen Buffleheads. Also  
present were 6 Pied-billed Grebes, American Coots and 21 DC Cormorants. One  
Bonaparte's Gull was mixing in with the constantly turning numbers of  
Ring-billed 
Gulls.
 
I photographed 23 Great Egrets, that were fishing in one group at  Robco 
Lake; that's a high number for me in January in Tennessee. The lighting  was 
terrible on the lake but there were 54 Canvasback in one pod. Around this  time 
of 
the year, Canvasback numbers grow as indicated by over 200 seen at  Arkabutla 
Lake that morning in Mississippi. I sorted through thousands upon  thousands 
of Ring-billed Gulls spread over H---'s Half Acre in Tunica  Co, and came away 
with just one third year Herring. Lots of  raptors, waterfowl and Sandhill 
Cranes but I was having a gull attack. I  need to get to Pace Point or Pickwick 
soon.
    
Good Birding  !!!

Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA
6298 Memphis-Arlington Road
Bartlett, TN  38135



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