FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] November Big Day

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

Saturday, November 9, 2002
Duck River and Big Sandy Units of the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge 
(Humphrey's and Henry Co., TN)
6am-5pm
162 miles

For our November Big Day Chris Sloan and myself once again limited our search 
to the Duck River and Big Sandy units of the Tennessee National Wildlife 
Refuge. The day started at 6 am at Duck River and ended at 5 pm at Paris 
Landing. Extremely windy and blustery conditions made bird finding very 
difficult. Although it was unseasonably warm, the wind made many of the 
passerines hunker down and caused large waves which, coupled to low light from 
overcast skies, made watefowl viewing next to impossible. Despite these 
conditions we persevered and ended up with some nice finds on the day.

Although the passerine birding was slow at Duck River, species such as WINTER 
WREN, BROWN CREEPER and GOLDEN-CROWNED and RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS made a 
respectable showing as good numbers were found of each. Watefowl numbers on the 
refuge were outstanding. All of the expected dabblers were present, with the 
exception of wood duck, and several divers were also found such as LESSER 
SCAUP, HOODED MERGANSER, RING-NECKED DUCK and RUDDY DUCK. All of Tennessee's 
regular occurring geese species were also found with Chris having the good 
fortune of having a representative of each species in view in his scope at the 
same time. Only two ROSS' GOOSE were found while multiples of SNOW, CANADA and 
WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE were observed. Shorebirds put in a good showing at Duck 
River with 4 GREATER YELLOWLEGS being observed and one field held a flock of 
nearly 30 WILSON'S SNIPE, a single LEAST SANDPIPER and, the surprise find of 
the day, 3 AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. Another good find here was a single PALM 
WARBLER and 3 TREE SWALLOWS played in the wind. GREAT EGRETS were still around 
in numbers as about 10 were observed and the fields were full of AMERICAN 
PIPITS. Raptors seemed to enjoy the wind as we found NORTHERN HARRIER, BALD 
EAGLE, RED-SHOULDERED and RED-TAILED HAWKS, and the first of 3 SHARP-SHINNED 
HAWKS on the day.

We left Duck River at about 10 am and headed straight to Pace Point. From the 
point we made another nice find for the day, a single adult PACIFIC LOON. 
BONAPARTE'S GULL, HORNED GREBE, COMMON LOON and GREATER SCAUP were other 
additions made from the point, but horrible lighting and bad wave action made 
viewing the large rafts of diving ducks farther out on the lake nearly 
impossible. In spite of the wind Pace Point provided a few more passerines with 
BROWN THRASHER and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW being added to the list. Also we found 
our only COOPER'S HAWK of the day near the maintenance shed harrassing a small 
flock of blackbirds.

From Pace Point it was on to the the mouth of the Big Sandy River. Here we had 
some unusually good luck for the day when Chris found a FORSTER'S TERN sit down 
in front of a large flock of gulls. When he tried to show me the bird in his 
scope the first thing I saw was an adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL directly 
behind the tern. A nice two-for-one special! However, in contrast to last week 
the only other new birds found here were two DUNLIN.

Britton Ford was a complete disappointment. There were very few ducks here 
period, never mind Canvasbacks or Redheads which we missed for the day. No 
LeConte's sparrows were in yet apparently, though we gave it our best shot and 
no longspurs were found using the stubble fields despite reports from earlier 
in the week. We fared no better at Paris Landing where we found the island 
devoid of birds with no apparent cause in the form of an eagle or falcon.

We ended the day with 94 species and lots of misses. A little better weather 
and maybe we would have fared differently. Due to the weather many of the 
species observed were represented by single individuals. It was a truly 
difficult day to find birds, but an enjoyable one nonetheless.

Good Birding!

Jay Desgrosellier
Nashville, TN 

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