Hi All,
I know that some folks really enjoy fully fledged birding stories even if long,
so here goes.
I had been wanting to see a breeding plumaged male Common Merganser in Georgia,
or anywhere, for over 9 years now. Seems like we only ever find the females in
Georgia and in the very deep Southeast. Having never seen the drake Saturday I
decided to do something about it not resisting the urge to come up and try for
the Sevier County pair being seen and reported recently.
On the way up to Tennessee I stopped at Tallulah Gorge State Park in Tallulah
Falls Georgia to check on a probably returning pair of Peregr1ne Falc0ns which
first nested there last year, and I found one bird on a cliff ledge very near
last year's cliff ledge nesting scrape site.
It was 1:20pm when I started walking back to the car from Overlook 9 on the
South Rim Trail of the gorge so was running a little late getting up to Sevier
County. I wasn't too worried though as Keith Watson had reported the male
merganser there the previous evening at 7:30pm. So finally arrived at Hwy 321
and Greenbrier Road about 5pm and drove south on Greenbrier along the Middle
Prong of the Little Pigeon River into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Pretty sure I saw the female merganser flying treetop high and north over the
river once but wasn't completely sure as was driving and it was a quick flyby,
but it sure looked like her, hmmmm. Drove a little bit of Ramsey Prong Road as
well trying to check every bit of river water, rocks, and banks, and sky that I
could see from both roads on the way in.
Missed the birds on the first pass, except for the probable flyby of the
female, and drove back down to Hwy 321 and got out and checked the river up and
down from both sides of the highway bridge there, then headed north up Hills
Creek Road and crossed the river on the Emerts Cove Covered Bridge and then
headed back to the highway bridge crossing, all without seeing the birds.
After scouting the area pretty well then and slowing and settling down from the
trip up from Georgia a bit, and really enjoying the area, I starting thinking
about what I knew. It was starting to get late. A fisherman had described to me
what sounded like the male further upriver (south) and seen several hours
earlier, and Keith had reported the male bird in the evening in what sounded
like the first half mile of the river south of the highway. That's where most
of the eBird report sightings seemed to be as well. I figured that wherever the
birds might be during different times of the day they probably ended up in or
near the larger calmer stretches or pools of water in the evening.
So thought to park at the little gravel parking area on the right at the first
major bend in the road from the highway, half way to the ranger station, and
then to walk back to the highway and then back to the car back and forth as
many times as needed and possible before dark.
Parked and walked slowly back to the highway checking every possible current,
pool, streamlet, rill, rivulet or run, rock, beach, and bank for the birds,
while watching overhead as much as possible. Checked the river on the north
side of the highway again and waited around a while there as felt that I didn't
want to get back to the southern end of my half mile stretch of river, by the
car, too quickly.
I was trying to be as silent, and slow moving (even easier), as possible on the
way back to the car as had read that the birds were pretty skittish at the
close ranges involved, and was watching upriver as far as I could see while
walking to try to pick up the bird(s) as early as possible so as not to disturb
them.
On my first return trip to the car from the highway, at 7:20pm, about 150-200
yards north of the gravel parking lot I picked the pair up preening on the near
bank of the river at coordinates:
35.733967,-83.412167
GPS: N 35 44.038 W 83 24.730
Wow! It's always a magical birding moment when you first see a bird you've been
chasing, especially if it's just come in. I could see them in the scope very,
very well, at anywhere from 25-75x, but how to get closer and how to find a
spot where I could avoid handheld phonescoping them through trees without
driving the birds off? It was getting late and it was going to be some pretty
low-light phonescoping.
Well a lot of folks were driving by coming and going, mostly leaving the area
for the day, and they would slow down to pass me standing on the side of the
narrow road. I quickly used them as moving blinds to get closer to the very
observant drake and the female, only moving when the vehicles passed by, and
then freezing as much as possible, in my hopefully really earth tone field
clothes, until the next car came by (wonder if I need face camo to sneak up on
ducks, never snuck up too much on ducks before). The birds didn't seem to mind
the cars at all as long as they kept moving a bit. A couple of drivers slowed
down to talk and I quickly and quietly asked them if they could roll slowly
while I walked beside them hoping the mergansers wouldn't notice any cars with
feet going by.
In this way I finally got to within 20 yards or so of the birds, and being very
still, using the trees for cover a little, was able to really observe them in
the binoculars and in the scope for a very good long time as they calmly swam
out into the quieter waters of the clear green swirling pools there in that
stretch of the river to fish and then return back to the nearshore shallows a
couple of times to preen.
I could see them very well, but I never could phonescope them meaningfully
while they were out in the stream fishing due to the trees. I dared not move
to a better vantage point, but I very briefly got a little footage while they
were preening at the shore.
As the light dimmed a couple quietly walked up and we all talked softly while
observing the birds while they were out in the stream fishing, the birds
tolerating our presence quite well until... a little too fast I raised my arm
(forgot the arm camo too) to take the binoculars off to share them with the
couple so that they could really see the birds. The movement caused first the
female, followed instantly by the male, to quickly flush across the water and
take to the air flying downriver towards the highway, and... that was that as
dusk really closed in.
I know that there are thousands, hopefully millions, of combinations of perfect
pristine habitat and splendid bird species in the birding world that can be
observed together, but this elegant merganser couple sleekly working together
in the water, ducking their heads under the current like so many loons,
serenely but energetically searching for fish or other prey, and then lightning
fast to pursue it, in this sublimely magnificent and beautiful clear mountain
stream and setting in one of our most significant eastern national parks has
got to be one of best in the Southeast or in North America!
---
Some may enjoy handheld phonescoped video clips and video still frames of the
mergansers which can be found in the
032616 Common Merganser Pair Little Pigeon River TN
folder on my Box site at:
https://app.box.com/shared/2yxtdkm3ta
All also easily available on Flickr at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/50282116@N04/
---
A quick and easy view of some still video frames of the birds can be had via
the eBird checklist as well:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S28594440
---
Handheld phonescoped video and still frames may be best viewed on a large
screen.
Information concerning how to use Apple MOV movie files can be read in my MOV
Video File How-To.txt available at:
http://www.box.com/s/ojj2lap6sayrj83n9zzx
Some of the video files on the site can be a bit large and may take some
minutes to download if you don't have high-speed internet access, but it may be
best to download them to your desktop or somewhere on your computer before
running them in QuickTime. That way they may run faster and you can keep them
if you like them too. Being handheld and usually at a very high magnification
they can sometimes get a little jittery, but they are still worth a look,
especially since you can drag through frame by frame in QuickTime and pause the
video on the best parts, playing at half speed in QuickTime can also be a good
idea.
---
Good Birding All!
Mark
Mark McShane
Georgia Birder-At-Large
Lawrenceville, Gwinnett County, Georgia
www.neargareport.com
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