FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Reelfoot area (gulls); 12/7/06

[<birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

12/7/06
Reelfoot area
Lake Co.

I spent about 6 hours birding the Reelfoot area today, with about 4 hours 
spent sitting and scoping through the HUGE gull day roost on Proctor City 
Rd. I met Nancy there at about 09:00, with about as many gulls as I can ever 
remember seeing in one small area in TN. As Mark said, 10,000 birds between 
here and the Prison would have to be conservative. Conditions were VERY 
brutal today, the fierce wind forcing us to stay in our vehicles and use 
window mounts.

On the way to the gull roost, I had a group of 6 WESTERN MEADOWLARKS fly 
across in front of me just north of the gull roost on Proctor City Rd. The 
roost area was white with birds when I got there. The sheer numbers, as well 
as wind and somewhat looking into the Sun in the morning, made for some 
tough birding. Dark birds stood out pretty well though, and it didn't take 
long at all to find two 1st-winter LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULLS. Only a handful 
of Herring Gulls, and I didn't see a Bony in this area all day. The other 
99.9% of the birds were Ring-billeds. We looked and looked for a Thayer's 
with no luck. Gulls were constantly trading out in groups of 20 to 30, or 
more. We've had a bunch of birds here on numerous occasions, but this was 
still pretty special.

After a couple of hours, we left to go check on the Ibis. No luck, I also 
made another pass through on my way home, where I ran into Mark Greene. No 
luck this time either. I don't think this means much though, it seems to be 
taking a lot of persistence to pick this bird up now. Hopefully it'll just 
stay another week or so anyway. On the way to Tiptonville, I made a quick 
stop at Champey's Pocket, with nothing but a bunch of whitecaps and 
Bonaparte's to show for it. The wind coming off that water almost made me 
glad that I really didn't have time to bird the lake today. Afterwards, I 
went back to continue the vigil with the gulls. Numbers were up when I got 
back, now the whole area of the water was white. Birds were so thick that it 
was literally hard to make the individual birds out. It took forever to even 
locate one of the Lesser Black-backs. Something subtle like an adult 
California would have practically taken divine intervention to get it out to 
where you could see anything on it. Finally, just before I was about to 
leave, two Ring-bills started a squabble on a slightly raised area, and when 
a small hole opened in the commotion, a fairly dark 1st-winter Thayer's was 
checking the scene out. I had about a minute of looking at the head and 
overall pattern of the bird, and finally the rear of the bird so I could see 
the tertials and wings, before the hole closed up and it disappeared. But, 
close to 4 hours of scoping and practically going cross-eyed looking at 
white paid off. That was my Thayer's for the year. There is no telling what 
is really among this concentration of birds. While I was sitting here I also 
heard Lapland Longspurs come over a couple of times. On my last quick trip 
through Black Bayou, there were a few Rusty Blackbirds among a large flock 
comprised mostly of Red-wings.

I was surprised, but I got some pretty decent shots of one of the Lesser 
Black-backs, and also took a few shots of the congregation, as words don't 
really do it justice. These are in a new album: 
http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/winter_06

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd

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