FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] Warblers Galore- Very Long

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

May 4-5, 2002
Lauderdale, Dyer, 
Lake and Obion Co.

Where do you start to describe an almost perfect series of events that fall 
exactly into place and end up providing you a most memorable birding 
experience? 

You receive a new pair of field glasses the day before, ones that you have 
researched and tested against many brands to come to the right decision for 
you. You watch the images on Nexrad Thursday night and Friday morning and 
these lend hope as a wave of birds, unmistakable in design and pattern 
advance across the gulf toward you; racing diagonally across Louisiana, 
racing with the wind on a collision course with a front coming from the 
northwest. Racing to get as far north on what fat and will held in reserve 
for just such a sprint. You get to leave early from work as your duties are 
checked off (or put off) for an upcoming weekend of birding around Reelfoot. 
The rain stops just as you reach the cross roads at Halls, TN and you make a 
quick decision to take a left and check out an area that produces surprises 
and this time the place out does itself. You hurry north to the TOS meeting 
in Dyersburg to see friends from across the state and persuade two to go 
south, on a hunch, rather than north to the famously productive Walnut Log 
Road that beckons seductively with memories of spring mornings past. 

Saturday morning after the sun lightened the cloudy sky and then hints of 
sunlight came lilting through the tree tops, we realized there are birds 
singing, feeding and chasing everywhere. It all falls together and the three 
of us were in warbler Heaven with many other species thrown in for good 
measure. Memories are to be made in the coming hours and we sensed it right 
away. We made only 7 stops along the bluff and what stops they were. Time and 
again an announced new species would send us to scurry to the finder to 
search for treasure among the leaves. Time and again we were treated to 
awesome looks at colorful jewels and unbelievable combinations of birds. Five 
Chestnut-sided feeding together, 6 Yellow-billed Cuckoos at another time, 2 
Philadelphia Vireos on one limb, brilliant Cape Mays in the tops of Cypress 
Trees, retina burning Blackburnian, bright spots of yellow in deep recesses 
in the woods revealed Hooded, Kentucky and Prothonotary Warblers, a Cerulean 
singing in full view as we got out of the car at an almost never failing 
site. A Louisiana Waterthrush threw us off by singing inside a long metal 
culvert under the road and throwing its voice out the other end 30 feet away. 
After locating the bird it then escaped us by flying through the culvert and 
perched on a log in the creek to show off. 

The last bit of luck came very late in the day when we are running full speed 
to make it to the banquet in Dyersburg some 30 miles to the south and then 
decided to stop at a location where we have never had a particular species of 
warbler but always hoped. It is the only string of pines between us and the 
dinner program and lo and behold we get two Pine Warblers chasing and 
calling. Sometimes it just doesn't get any better and best of all we got to 
participate.

We ended the day with a smacking 32 species of warblers, which is pretty neat 
but the best aspect of the day was the shear numbers of each species seen and 
the superb looks that we were rewarded. My new glasses performed in the field 
with rich color and instant focus on bird after bird, species upon species. 
The evening before along Key Corner Road at the base of the loess soil 
bluffs, I had had a stunning look at a Lawrence's Warbler which we did not 
find Saturday but we did locate no less than 7 Golden-winged and we had 
multiples of all but 4 of the 32 species. 

A tree with 15 to 20 warblers feeding in and out was the norm for the 
morning. Our missed species were ones that we had only remote chances of 
seeing such as, Prairie which is almost impossible to find in the delta but 
easy just 50 miles east, Mourning which does not show up every year here 
along with Connecticut which reveals itself only occasionally on Walnut Log 
Road, and Orange-crowned which is a tough one when you have to have it any 
time. By late afternoon most of the big numbers had moved on. 

We would spend an hour in one location and then go to our next stop for 
another parade. Warblers perched at eye level, bathed in wet leaves, chased 
one another from tree top to tree top, sang short songs and full songs, gave 
chips and chirps or sat very still and were fodder for our eyes; we feasted, 
never too full to rush to see another and yet another.

At the end of the day, without visiting any of the regular shorebird haunts, 
we totaled 151 species with many surprises, like a single Sandhill Crane that 
flew across a distant field and finally called back to us as it went out of 
sight, an American Bittern that froze in place as we took photos, a 
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron that let us drive right up to it for another photo 
shoot, a Peregrine Falcon that awed us with speed and grace, a Black-billed 
Cuckoo that called from the same location on Saturday and Sunday (maybe 
another nesting event). Looking directly into the deep dark, squinted eyes of 
a roosting Barred Owl or listening to a Screech Owl calling from deep within 
a hollow tree are always good for a few minutes of quite transfixed enjoyment 
that bring irrepressible smiles across your face. You just look at each other 
and share the moment in silence

We got all the woodpeckers with the one holdout being Sapsucker and the cool 
morning did nothing for the flycatcher numbers but we did see Peewee, Phoebe, 
3 or 4 Least Flycatchers and saw and heard many Acadian. The others will be 
here next week in numbers. An Eurasian Collared-Dove sat on top of a 
telephone pole next to its nesting tree as we hurried past in Ridgley. We had 
the 6 expected vireos with multiple Philadelphia feeding in Sycamore trees. 
We saw all the swallows and Purple Martins foraging over various backwater 
pools. 

A Red-breasted Nuthatch piped up at Champy's Pocket while we viewed 
Bonaparte's, Ring-billed and an immature Herring Gull with Caspian, Forster's 
and Black Terns thrown in for good measure. The Least Tern arrival has been 
delay by a rising Mississippi River. 

All the thrushes put in stunning appearances, two or three species could be 
heard singing at more than one stop at the deep, sand bottom creek beds that 
wander back into the bluff along Key Corner Road. The up close Veery, seemly 
made its own light as it posed at Moss Island, was another show stopper. 
Grasshopper Sparrows teed up singing and let us take a few photos; Lincoln's 
Sparrows in their new dapper tweed suits let us view them as they chased 
through the grasses and brambles in hormone induced pursuits that will come 
to sexual reality soon but much further north.

By late afternoon Saturday, we knew the best had past as the numbers grew 
thinner and thinner in the tree tops. They had moved through leaving a few in 
need of more rest and food for Sunday viewing. We had a quieter time then but 
still enough birds to let us down gently from the Saturday high and time for 
me to visit with my beloved "Wind birds." 

I added another 29 species on Sunday to round out my weekend total to an even 
180 species; a total that would be good even on the coast. Most of all we 
were left with many stories to tell and times to remember. Sunday evening was 
spent at White Lake surrounded by "wind birds" talking about the night's 
travel, planning where to stop next. I was greeted by a Golden-plover, 5 
breeding plumaged female Wilson's Phalarope, Western and Semipalmated 
Sandpiper rounding out a total of 17 species of shorebirds plus an adult and 
second year Black-crowned Night-Heron sitting on the board walk. A male 
Ring-necked Duck was the last surprise of the weekend. I started the long 
drive home at dark with miles of memories to mull.

A brief but good look at a Black-throated Blue Warbler (only my 3rd for west 
TN) on the Hacking Road Sunday that called once, leaving us running and 
searching, brought the weekend warbler total to 33 species, which rolls off 
the tongue quite nicely.............Thanks to Mark Greene, Mike Todd, Hap 
Chambers, Roseanne Denton, the Leggett's and Gary Casey for sharing.

Good Birding!!!

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


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