FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Tenn NWR Busseltown: many sparrows, few ducks, no geese

[Bill Pulliam <bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I took a short trip over to the Busseltown unit of Tennessee NWR in  
Decatur County today (Nov. 8 2006).  All the refuge roads were open  
but water birds were a bust -- no geese at all, only ducks were 80  
Mallards, just a few Great Blue Herons and Ring-billed Gulls plus one  
Herring Gull.  Maybe it's early yet for the geese there.  So I  
focused on sparrows and other dickey birds instead.  And there were  
plenty of sparrows:

Field Sparrow 10
Savannah Sparrow 12
LeConte's Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 90
Swamp Sparrow 70
White-throated Sparrow 55
White-crowned Sparrow 18

Interestingly, no Lincoln's Sparrow in spite of much stomping through  
suitable habitat.  Also 60 American Pipits and 50 meadowlarks.  I put  
all the meadowlarks down as Easterns since that was all the  
vocalizations I heard; how far west in TN do you have to go before  
Western's become a likelihood?

I found the LeConte's thanks to the pointers Damien Simbek and Jeff  
Wilson gave me on the preferred habitat.  I located a nice patch of  
panicum around a slough amidst the corn fields, walked it, and within  
about 10 minutes a LeConte's flushed, perched in perfect light, and  
sat there giving me gorgeous views.  The perfect way to get my state  
tickie for LeConte's (I decided that since I'll probably live here  
for most of the rest of my life, I ought to start paying attention to  
my Tennessee list!).

I was wondering about the LeConte's - Panicum association.  Is the  
panicum a direct food resource, or is it more that it provides the  
proper physical structure for LeConte's?  The Panicum seedheads  
seemed to be picked pretty clean already.

Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
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