[Bristol-Birds] Red Phalarope @ Douglas Lake

Ten Islands & Dutch Bottoms, Cocke county, 9/25/08, 5:00-8:30 PM, by canoe 
Lake elevation: 967.9 ft.
TVA lowered Douglas Lake about a foot over the past 2 days, widening muddy shores and exposing offshore mudbanks at Dutch Bottoms. We went toward Ten Islands first, then back under Walters Bridge to survey the fresh flats. After sunset, Leslie spotted an odd bird foraging on the opposite side of the last shoal. Like the sanderling we saw at Ten Islands, it was appreciably larger then the nearby peeps, and had a straight dark bill and bright white underparts. The black earpatch indicated red or red-necked phalarope, but this guy was scurrying along the ground on its stubby legs, rather than spinning on the water to feed. We got some fuzzy low-light photos and later Jeff Wilson and Mike Todd agreed via email that it was a molting juvenile red phalarope.
To view the Dutch Bottoms mudbanks from shore, drive down the access road on the curve just past the biker beer joint next to the TWRA boat ramp. 

Partial list:

Green-winged teal (4 TI)
Bald eagle (1 imm, DB)
Peregrine falcon (flying across Walters Bridge)
Semipalmated plover (7 TI; 2 DB)
Killdeer (45 TI; 50 DB)
Sanderling (1 juv., TI)
Semipalmated sandpiper (6 TI; 4 DB)
Western sandpiper(2 DB)
Least sandpiper (38 TI; 56 DB)
White-rumped sandpiper (TI)
Baird's sandpiper (DB)
Pectoral sandpiper (10 juv. TI, 1 DB)
Red phalarope (1 juv., DB)
  http://www.pbase.com/image/103672852/original

Michael Sledjeski & Leslie Gibbens
Del Rio TN



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