FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] C Merganser... again! - Knox

[K Dean EDWARDS <kde@xxxxxxx>]

As ridiculous as it sounds, I had a male COMMON MERGANSER fly over
the yard this morning... and this wasn't the first time!

On 22 April 2006, I had 2 male Common Mergansers flying over our
yard in West Knox Co heading north along Black Oak Ridge about
20 ft above tree level.  Today, (2 May 2008), a single male Common
Merganser was spotted around 7:50AM making an almost identical
track up the ridge, at about the same altitude.

I had a brief view of the bird today.  It was immediately clear
that it was a merganser so I was able to focus on the head, neck
and breast.  From below, the bird had entirely white underparts
(including the breast and flanks which rules out Red-breasted
and the much smaller Hooded Mergansers) except for a small dark
head and darker grey on the flight feathers and wing edges.  The
dark on the head was very limited and there was no dark marking on
the neck or breast.  Other features:  long neck with small head,
relatively long pointed wings, short tail (i.e., not like a
cormorant).

So I've now seen 4 Common Mergansers in Knox Co and 3 were flying
over our yard (the other was also a male on Ft Loudon Lake across
from the main UT campus in the late 1980s... don't have the
exact date handy at the moment, it's in another set of records).

Anyway, some other yard highlights this morning:

E Wood-Pewee
BLACKPOLL, 1 male, FOS
American Redstart, 1 male
"Myrtle" Yellow-rumped Warbler, about 5
Scarlet Tanager, at least 1
Baltimore Oriole, 1 male

Dean Edwards
Knoxville, TN


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