FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] Lake Isom NWR/ spring meeting

[Charlie <cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

Well thanks a lot to the folks who put together a pleasant weekend. 
Good food, great speaker, and wonderful birding.  This is actually a
report on a site that I don't believe was part of an official trip,
so folks from outside the Reelfoot area can know of a nice little
spot.

On Sunday Tracey Everson and I decided to skip the official trip and
go on our own, leaving early to meet with a couple friends who showed
us a good shorebird area their Saturday trip hit, but ours didn't. 
After they left we wandered around a bit, until we came across Lake
Isom National Wildlife Refuge (DeLorme page 47, B5).

I'm a huge fan of the NWR system, so we decided to check it out, not
expecting much since it wasn't on anyone's agenda for the weekend (of
course there are so many good sites to see, I'm sure that there were
others the experts had to neglect as well!)

Lake Isom is a great place - expecially for some of our less-mobile
birders.  In just an hour around noon, we saw over 70 species!  All
this while walking on a level, easy surface with no mud, poison ivy
or other "hazards."  In fact, one can bird from a vehicle and still
have every species we did.  Among the species we had:

Red-shouldered Hawks on nest
Mississippi Kite
Prothonatory, Kentucky, Yellow-throated Warblers
N. Parula, C. Yellowthroat, 
Eastern Wood-pewee and Eastern Kingbird
Summer Tanager
Baltimore Oriole
Ruby-throated Hummer
Dickcissel (on the drive in from route 78)
our only Phoebes and Pileated Woodpecker of the weekend
Stilt, Least, Spotted and Pectoral Sandpipers
Greater Yellowlegs (we think some lessers flew off as we approached)

There is no admission fee (nor any facilities) and the signage is
pretty weak - we had to hunt a bit.

If we could get this many birds during the noon hour, I can only
guess what some of the west Tennessee experts could get during a good
morning!

Good birding
Charlie





=====
**************************************************
Charlie Muise, Senior Naturalist
Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
Townsend, TN  lat 35 deg, 38'23"  long 83 deg, 41'22"

"Do something. If it works, do it again. If it does not work, do something 
else. But above all else: Do Something." (Franklin Delano Roosevelt)

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness
http://health.yahoo.com
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------- 
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
          web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
        jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx      (423) 764-3958
=========================================================