FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] September Big Day

["Desgrosellier, Jay" <jay.desgrosellier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Saturday, September 28, 2002
6am-6:30pm
Cheatham Co., Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge Duck River and Big Sandy 
Units, Paris Landing State Park and Cross Creeks NWR, TN
283 miles
 
For our September big day attempt the team of Chris Sloan and myself attempted 
a much more local route than on any of our previous big days. We decided to do 
a loop which began at Narrows of the Harpeth State Park and various Cheatham 
Co. locations, and proceeded to the Duck River Unit of TNNWR, Pace Point, Paris 
Landing and finally Cross Creeks NWR. 
 
The day began with a very cooperative EASTERN SCREECH-OWL at Narrows of the 
Harpeth State Park. Fog made early morning viewing difficult, but we still 
managed to find WHITE-EYED, PHILADELPHIA and RED-EYED VIREO, OVENBIRD, 
REDSTART, MAGNOLIA WARBLER, TENNESSEE WARBLER, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, PARULA, 
YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER, GRAY CATBIRD, BROWN THRASHER, BELTED KINGFISHER, 
RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, SUMMER TANAGER, SWAINSON'S THRUSH and our first of 
many ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS. As the fog lifted we had high hopes that we would 
start picking up many more species of warbler, but it just didn't happen. Stops 
at other locations in Cheatham Co. didn't make up for our warbler deficiency 
and so we took off to the Duck River unit of TNNWR knowing that we were already 
in trouble.
 
Upon arriving at the Duck River unit we were able to add YELLOW-THROATED VIREO, 
CHESTNUT-SIDED and NASHVILLE WARBLER, wich helped but didn't cure our ills. The 
bottoms were fairly prductive. Birds found here included CATTLE EGRET, SNOWY 
EGRET, YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, HORNED LARK, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, AMERCAN COOT, 
PIED-BILLED GREBE and lots of early ducks. We actually managed to find all of 
Tennessee's common dabbling ducks including MALLARD, WOOD DUCK, GREEN-WINGED 
and BLUE-WINGED TEAL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, GADWALL, NORTHERN PINTAIL, BLACK DUCK 
and AMERICAN WIGEON. Just to drive home how widespread and abundant grosbeaks 
were on the day, we found a single grosbeak sitting on a grass stalk out in a 
field far from any trees. They were easily the most abundant neotropical 
migrants observed on the day. 
 
We were still doing o.k. after hitting the bottoms, but then things really 
started going downhill. Despite having good directions, we managed to get lost 
on our way to a marsh on the east end of the bottoms. This was supposed to be 
our rail spot, so we probably lost a few species due to this mistake. Next we 
were off to Pace Point.
 
After arriving at Pace Point we knew our fate was sealed. The water level was 
way up and absolutely no mud or shoreline was exposed anywhere. There wasn't 
even a place for all of the gulls to sit, as they were all out on the water. 
Isidore had provided us with too much water and we would suffer by not finding 
ANY shorebird habitat. In fact, besides Killdeer, the Spotted Sandpiper we 
found at Duck River would by our only other shorebird on the day. There was a 
nice collection of passerines on the point. We added BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER, 
WARBLING VIREO and HOUSE WREN, but they were only a small consolation. 
 
A quick stop at Paris Landing provided us with HERRING GULL, and FORSTER'S and 
COMMON TERN then it was off to Cross Creeks. Once again Isidore had gotten the 
better of us. All of the shorebird habitat present here just two weeks ago was 
completely inundated. All of the pools at Cross Creeks were completely full. We 
called it a day at sunset, a rarity for us, and headed home a little early 
having been thoroughly defeated by mother nature. We ended with 101 species 
with 7 unshared, which will further decrease the official total. But it's our 
failures that make our successes that much sweeter so we will look forward to 
next time.
 
Good Birding!
 
Jay Desgrosellier
Nashville, TN
 
 

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