FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] White-faced Ibis; Lake Co.

["Todd, Michael C." <michael.c.todd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

11/12/06
Lake Co.
I decided to trade some sleep today for a potential milestone state bird,
after getting a call from Jon Mann saying that the Ibis was still there and
that with good looks he and Nancy were sure it was a White-faced. I arrived
in the area about 13:00 this afternoon, and immediately found the bird back
in the location that Nancy had been seeing it, the flooded treeline off of
Herron Rd. Initially the bird was too distant to do much with, but the
amount of iridescence on the upperparts sure looked good for an adult bird.
The bird finally flew down to the end of the slough nearest me, and I could
occasionally get what I thought was a gleam of red from the eye, when the
head turned right with the Sun. After about 30 minutes, the bird flew over
the treeline to the north, hopefully over to the location where they had it
this morning.

When I arrived at the impoundment at the intersection of Donnell and
Phillipy Rd, the Ibis was barely visible against the closest levee. I
watched the bird at this location for about an hour and a half. It flew
around to a different spot here a couple of times, but was always in view.
Looks were much better here, and I regularly got a glimpse of red in the
birds eye as Sun caught it right. This was hard to see most of the time,
just because of the position of the Sun relative to me and bird. There was a
coot nearby often, and the red eye on the coot was hard to see as well.
Morning would definitely offer better light on the bird at either location.
The bird fed or preened constantly, and was really pulling some healthy
morsels out of the mud. 

In addition to the red eye, the entire upperparts were a very iridescent
pale green, with a definite rosy tint to the tertials in good light. Even
without getting the color of the eye, I think the brightness of the bird
would age it as in at least its 2nd year, so with the combination of this
and no hint of the facial pattern of a Glossy, would definitely lean
strongly towards White-faced. Even a 1st-year Glossy by now should be
showing at least some of the facial pattern of that species, all of the
online photos of juvenile Glossies I could find from November had the
diagnostic facial pattern. The tone of the iridescence is pretty subtle, and
a secondary mark (especially after seeing eye color), but it was a lighter
tone than I remember on Glossy Ibis, and a search of online photos seems to
reinforce this. Even with the dull neck and face right now, this is a
GORGEOUS bird. I have a little experience with both Plegadis species, but
this was a very interesting exercise as I've never had to work to separate
them at this time of year. 

Thanks to Nancy getting the word out, and Jon calling after they nailed it
down,  I finally got my new State bird this year, #350. After the banner
year last year, and barely missing a couple of birds this fall, I was
wondering if it was in the cards this year. The Ibis was very cooperative,
almost comical at times. In between meals, it would preen, bathe, and then
run around with its wings outstretched. It and the coot squabbled a couple
of times, with the coot getting the worse end of the deal.

Other birds of interest in the short time I was there were 3 small flyover
flocks of Lapland Longspurs, and a small flight of geese that held 5 Greater
White-fronts, 1 Snow, and 1 Ross's.

I took some photos of the White-faced, though I don't know if any will be
diagnostic. I'll go through them in the morning when I get home from work,
and post some.

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (home)
Michael.c.todd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (work)
www.pbase.com/mctodd



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