FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] West TN Rarities - Update

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

June 29-30-31, 2003
Dyer and Lake Counties
This was a busy weekend, with BOTH WHISTLING DUCK SPECIES and a breeding 
plumaged GLOSSY IBIS and TRI-COLORED HERON furnishing good looks for most of 
the 
birders from across the state that joined in the bounty.

I took off early from work Friday and started toward the promised land, 
arriving just north of the Obion River bridge in Dyer Co, on the Great River 
Road 
(181) about 6 PM. Almost, the first bird I came across was the really glossy, 
breeding plumaged Glossy Ibis. While I was enjoying the impressive beauty of 
this bird in the evening sun, an adult, breeding plumaged Tri-colored Heron wa
lked into view, a double whammy. as a bonus, we watched a Black-billed Cuckoo 
transporting food from one side of the road to the other on 3 occasions at this 
location Friday afternoon and again Saturday morning.

The GLOSSY IBIS was first found and IDed by the Satterfields earlier in the 
week, a few miles to the north. Frank Fekel and I saw the Glossy take off and 
briefly join another dark ibis but they soon went in different directions and 
the Glossy returned to the area a few minutes later. Could we have a 
White-faced in the area also?? The Glossy stayed about a mile or two north of 
the Obion 
River, even with the fast falling water, until the afternoon on Sunday. Nick 
Winstead, Sergio Pierlwissi and I heard it call a few times as it took to the 
air and then headed west. I did not see it again after that time. When the 
water was up on Friday afternoon and Saturday, there were hundreds of egrets 
and 
herons at this location off the Great River Road but by Sunday afternoon the 
Glossy was almost the only bird left.

The TRI-COLORED HERON gave every one great views of its natty attire and long 
bill on Saturday and I relocated the bird early Sunday but it was not seen 
again after that. I did get a few shots of this bird and hopefully we can once 
again find this species nesting nearby. The big problem is the rookery may be 
located across the river in Arkansas.

The amazing reappearance of the BLACK-BELLIED WHISTLING DUCKS really was the 
icing on the cake with a few lucky birders seeing both species within minutes 
of each other. Nancy Moore and I saw 6 of the FULVOUS WHISTLING DUCKS late 
Friday afternoon as they flew around the Owl Hoot Road site and headed 
southeast. 
The next day Ken and Betty were heading toward the Glossy site, when Betty 
spotted a pair of Black-bellied around mile marker 5 on the Great River Road. 
We 
all hustled north and got excellent looks at the attentive male on guard as 
the female foraged in this weedy wet area. These birds stayed there most of the 
day and were there for a few hours on Sunday morning. Could this be the 
making of another B-B nesting for Tennessee? 

Later I picked up some distant sleeping ducks from the Great River Road in 
the reliable Fulvous area. Lo and behold, even at 8/10ths of a mile, we could 
make out they were Black-bellied. Later from the end of Owl Hoot Road, we saw 8 
take off and fly southeast and Gail Clendenen saw another that was not with 
this group land in a grassy area nearby. These 9 and the 2 located some 14 
miles 
south equal the number of the original group of 11 found by Criswell three 
weeks ago.

After I left to take Nancy Moore back to her truck, Frank Fekel, Mary 
Zimmerman, Winston Walton, Steve and Gail Clendenen waited out the Fulvous 
Ducks and 
at ten minutes to 7, six Fulvous appeared and swung around the area and then 
left, heading to the southeast. This lucky group became the first birders on 
record to see both species of Whistling Ducks in TN on the same day.

Looking over the maps that night, I decided to search the area between Miston 
and the Great River Road, south of 103 highway the next morning. I found at 
least 4 Black-bellied feeding on the ground in the field west of Running Slough 
with hundreds of egrets and herons and a crop dusting plane flushed 3 Fulvous 
Ducks from another field and they flew northwest. Nancy Moore was to see 
these same 3 Fulvous flying while taking photos of the S-T nest on 103 highway. 
They flew from her location to the Owl Hoot location as I watched from the 
Great 
River Road about 6:30 PM. A place which was not birdied over the weekend and 
would be a good place to look for these ducks, as the water recedes, is the 
new wildlife management area along the Obion River near 78 highway.

Other ducks of note would be the Mallards, Blue-winged Teal, Wood Ducks and 
Hooded Mergansers, all with young in tow. Another pair to watch for off 103 
highway would be a male BLACK DUCK that is paired with a female Mallard.

Shorebirds are getting harder and harder to find as the last few sift through 
to the north. The first returning birds will be back in just 3 weeks! At 
various locations, we found Dunlin, Semipalmated Sandpipers, White-rumped and a 
sprinkling of Least. Nancy Moore and I had 7 Greater Yellowlegs at the Owl Hoot 
location late Friday and I believe Jan Shaw and Bob Casey had a Willet there 
Thursday evening. We located a single Stilt Sandpiper off of 79 highway Sunday 
at Noon.

A VERY perplexing Golden-Plover was located by Winston Walden on Saturday at 
the corner of Robinson Bayou and Hampton Road in Lake Co. Six of us spent 
quite a bit of time with the bird on Saturday and I studied and photographed it 
on 
Saturday and Sunday. It had a very long heavy bill, a long legged look (due 
to long tibia), long tertials, white running all down the sides of the black 
chest and belly, extensively white undertail coverts with dark spotting, feet 
that protruded behind the tail in flight and apparently only 3 primaries 
extending beyond the tertials. Most of these points add up to fulva rather than 
dominica. The bird was probably just a female American Golden but?? Photos were 
taken from a great distance but most of these points were seen by all. 
Fortunately, I located another American Golden-Plover off 79 highway just after 
this 
bird was seen and the details fresh in everyone's mind. This bird was in BASIC 
plumage but the short pointed bill, shorter legs and long wing extension 
presented a very different image from the bird studied earlier.

The Black-necked Stilts are trying to nest everywhere in Dyer and Lake 
Counties. Nancy and I counted 57 from one location on the Great River Road on 
Friday 
afternoon. I tallied 143 on Sunday while driving from place to place in DYER 
COUNTY with another 49 in lower Lake County for a one day total of 192! Few of 
these nest will succeed as the plows are already working the drying edges as 
the water recedes. Much corn has been lost and probably beans will be the crop 
of choice for the time left this season. I counted 40 plus nests of Least 
Terns in one sandy field in Dyer County. It will be a long time before enough 
sandbars will be exposed on the Mississippi River for them to nest in safety.

 Six Grasshopper Sparrows were seen along Lower Owl Hoot and Owl Hoot Road 
and a few Forster's and Black Terns are still passing through. Four White 
Pelicans were seen in a wet area north of White Lake Refuge as I drove home on 
Sunday.


Good Birding!!!

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


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