FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Weekend Ramble

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

March 8-9, 2003
Big Sandy Area
Northwest KY and TN

After a 2-1/2 hour drive to Big Sandy to hook up with Jason Mann on Saturday 
morning, we arrived at the entrance to the Big Sandy Unit of the TN - NWR 
only to find the gates closed ;o( I knew there was a problem with the road 
back near Lashlee Spring and they had closed the road to Rocky Point but 
expected to be able to get out to the Point for some gulls.

AGAIN, BIG SANDY UNIT TN-NWR IS CLOSED!!

Jason is new to the area and had been reading about Pace Point for a while 
and being in Med school this was one of the few times he had to get in some 
serious birding. We did our best with most of the time spent showing him the 
nooks and crannies to look in on future trips. The water is down slightly 
exposing some mud flats and we found 1 Dunlin, a flock of Pectoral Sandpipers 
that flew in but only 4 or 5 stayed along with 3 Wilson's Snipe at Lick 
Creek. 

The few places where we could get close to gulls produced an upside down 
effect in that the Herring Gulls out numbered the Ring-billed with 
Bonaparte's running neck in neck with RB. At Britton Ford I was able to 
photograph an adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL which pumped us up for a while. 
About 40 Pectoral Sandpipers were feeding on the flat at Britton Ford. There 
was a nice collection of waterfowl here with 20 species. Blue-winged Teal, 
Canvasback and Redheads were the highlights but hordes of classy Green-winged 
were nice.

In different areas we totaled only about 10-15 Common Loons but with the 
extremely choppy water and not being able to get to Pace Point area held that 
number down. Horned Grebes and Pied were scattered. Hunting Bald Eagles were 
giving the ducks a hard time as they swooped in scaring them into two modes, 
diving under water or fleeing in the air. One adult Bald made a beautiful 
swoop and stall, to pluck a fish from the water in the bright sunlight. It 
looked like a sequence from a NATURE Program in slow motion.

Jason wanted a LeConte's Sparrow but being late in the season and a pretty 
stiff wind, it did not bode well. The God's smiled on us and jaw dropping, 
full scope views, front and back, of a perched bird were our reward for wet 
feet. The afternoon sun glistened off the golden feathers and the maroon and 
gray nape was as pretty as any embroidered piece you have ever seen. The bird 
perched up for over 5 minutes as we enjoyed the fine details of plumage. We 
spent the late afternoon watching the ducks trade in and out from the viewing 
platform at Britton Ford enjoying the summer weather. He traveled back to 
Nashville and I headed toward Reelfoot with a vision of a golden LeConte's 
embedded in our brains, such always makes a drive shorter.

Summer was short lived, as Sunday morning at Reelfoot the cold wind whistled 
through my one layer of clothing that I had put on with confidence that 
morning. Needless to say, that one layer soon became multiple layers. At 
dawn, I approached the lake from the south only to see a huge black cloud of 
birds in the distance over the trees at Champy's Pocket. I thought them to be 
blackbirds but then realized they were gulls. I raced up under this twisting 
convoluted mass in the gray sky and watched as most passed to the northwest. 
It was the LARGEST group of gulls I have ever witnessed at one time in 
Tennessee. Where they went, I do not know as I probably did not see over 2 or 
3 hundred the rest of the day. I did not make it back to see if the birds 
returned to roost but it was one heck of a group of gulls.

The rest of the day was spent leaning into a cold north wind. I run up on Hap 
Chambers and Nancy Moore out birding near Long-point in KY a couple of times. 
There were a couple of thousand Snow Geese with a few Greater White-fronted 
and a sprinkle of Ross's at Open Pond just inside KY. Earlier I had counted 
24 Pectoral Sandpipers and a Lesser Yellowlegs at Long Point and Hap added a 
Greater to the list with her visit. Four Western Meadowlarks near Open Pond 
in KY and 5 near Black Bayou in TN were nice finds but Lapland Longspurs did 
not make the list. 

At Black Bayou we had two treats with Nancy Moore's train Barred Owl poising 
in a spindly tree, right next to the road only about 4 feet off the ground. I 
had to back up to get the whole bird in the frame. It had found a nice sunny 
place out of the wind and was dozing away when we left. Everybody got great 
shots. As we traveled up the road a bit, a single sparrow flew across and I 
recognized it to be a Tree and we pulled into the parking lot at the viewing 
platform. I was able to phish the bird up right in front of us, out in the 
open and bright sunlight. Each fine feature of plumage was showcased as the 
bird turned and twisted as if in a spot light.

North of Black Bayou in the rolled Rice fields, we located a Lesser 
Yellowlegs and about 300 Pectoral Sandpipers. Birds were still falling in as 
we left. Two Greater Yellowlegs came in, giving a distinctly different type 
of call that I rarely hear and is possibly a shortened breeding ground 
trilling. More Pectoral and Yellowlegs were found later off the Great River 
Road.

The only warm spot of the day was eating Bar-B-Que and listening to Hap 
talking about the warm birding time she had enjoyed in Cuba recently. The 
drool running into my beard was not from the Bar-B-Que. As we split up 
heading in different directions, I decided to see what was happening in the 
flooded fields off the Great River Road and 88 Highway. I was not 
disappointed as waterfowl was stacked up everywhere as far as the eye could 
see in some places. The river has receded slightly but the ducks were mucking 
around in the soft warm soil with plenty of deeper water giving divers a 
chance. The afternoon sun afforded me great lighting but no unusual species 
were seen. This would be a whole days work for someone and probably rewarding 
in terms of an unusual species. Seldom do you have the lighting, elevations 
and numbers all at one time. Sunday's waterfowl total again was the magical 
20 species although a slightly different list from Saturday. The weekend 
total came to 23 species.

Good Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL' COOT / TLBA
Bartlett Tenn.


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