[TN-Bird] Black-throated Sparrow, Whooping Cranes, Short-eared Owls

From: David Trently <dtrently@xxxxxxx>
To: TN-Bird <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2006 23:29:04 -0500
On Sunday, Jan 15, Audrey Hoff, Mike Nelson and I drove over to Lincoln County 
to try to see the BLACK-THROATED SPARROW at the Dennison farm in Elora. As 
soon as we arrived there, we saw the bird. Made me feel like I was in Arizona 
once again :-)
We didn't find a sign in sheet so obviously did not leave our names.
We spoke for a while with Mrs. Dennison, who told us about a barn you'll pass 
as you approach the property. It has a rounded roof, unlike almost all other 
barns you see anywhere. The wood to make the roof had to be soaked and bent 
over a long period of time. There are plans to restore it, as it is not in the 
best shape. It's worth a minute of your time to check it out.

Since our main target of the day had been found, we wanted to next work on 
getting Mike some life birds. He's traveled around the world, but not seen 
some fairly common things like pipits, larks and any loons! Well, right there 
on the farm were hundreds of HORNED LARKS...and as we photographed the barn, a 
few AMERICAN PIPITS walked right past the car.
Ruth Luckado and Jerry Ingles, who we met there, told us of the spot where 
WHOOPING CRANES had been spending a lot of time in Winchester, so we drove 
over there and saw FOUR of them, along with a few SANDHILL CRANEs, 2 AMERICAN 
WIGEON and a hundred+ MALLARDS. A SHARP-SHINNED HAWK harassed a pair of 
RED-TAILED HAWKs for our first air show of the day...

From there we headed over to Woods Reservoir (I think it's Coffee County) 
where we got Mike about 100 COMMON LOONSs to see. Several BONAPARTE'S GULLs 
were around and 1 or 2 HORNED GREBEs, along with a few other common birds.

Heading toward home (Knoxville) we decided to go through the Sequatchie Valley 
to see if there were any Rough-legged Hawks about. At Ninemile Crossroads 
(Bledsoe County, off route 127) we found our second 'air show' of the day. We 
got there around 5:00 Eastern Time and saw 4 birds in the air around a large 
tree. They turned out to be 3 SHORT-EARED OWLs and a NORTHERN HARRIER! I had 
not heard of the owls being seen in this area before. We watched them for 
about an hour, as they hunted and even sat in the tree. Eventually two flew 
off toward the northwest, and then a little while later there were 4 around 
the tree, so a total of 4 - 6 were in the area. At least two more harriers 
came around as well, including one silvery male.
The best part of this show was when a Short-eared Owl dropped to the ground on 
top of some prey...and was soon harassed by one of the harriers. They were 
both flying, with the owl calling out, when finally the owl dropped the rodent 
(looked like a rat) and the harrier grabbed it to fly off to feed at the other 
end of the field. I have seen harriers harass Short-eared Owls before, but 
never actually take food away.
The owls were rather vocal at other times too, while flying and while sitting 
in the tree (for great scope views!).
A GREAT HORNED OWL was heard once as it got darker...and then we headed home, 
quite a nice 400 mile adventure.

To get to this site...
I don't have my Delorme Atlas with me, to give better directions, but look for 
US 127 in Bledsoe County (it's south of Crossville), between the Cumberland 
Plateau and Walden Ridge. You should see Ninemile Crossroads, an east-west 
route across the valley. 0.9 miles to the east of 127 there is a small pond on 
the left (north). This is the area we saw the owls and harriers. It's not a 
busy road so you should be able to park safely along the side of the road. Do 
keep an eye out for Rough-legged Hawks, as they have been seen here in past 
years.

Also seen today were a good number of EURASIAN COLLARED-DOVEs, in Franklin 
County around Winchester, plus a couple in the Sequatchie Valley.

David Trently,
Knoxville, TN

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[TN-Bird] Black-throated Sparrow, Whooping Cranes, Short-eared Owls

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