[TN-Bird] Gulls, loons, and merganser, oh my!

From: "Scott Somershoe" <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx>
To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2011 19:12:14 -0600
managed a few hours around Percy Priest Lake this afternoon.  I started at 
Anderson Rd Rec area where I ran into Terry Witt.  We had lots of Common Loons 
(255 total with 238 in one group) off merlin point.  This is my second highest 
count for the lake and it was a few hours before all the birds come to roost.  
This must mean huge numbers this evening!  Anderson Rd is still not the best 
place to view the loon roost on Priest, so I was pretty excited about something 
special on the lake today.  Hundreds to thousands of Ring-billed Gulls were 
also flying around feasting on shad, the victim of the newest mass die off we 
shouldn't worry about.

Anyway, I had 2 male Canvasback at the dam, which was my first for the lake.  
~4000 ring-billed gulls were feasting on shad here.


I went to my favorite roost viewing area at Cook Public rec area.  While 
walking to the tip of the peninsula, I flushed 20 american pipets along the 
lake edge (a first for me at this location and a good sized group for the area).


The majority of Common Loons had apparently already gathered in their roost a 
few hours before.  I couldn't count more than 316, which is my lake high count 
(prev 301 back in Nov 2010).  This is still an excellent number for January in 
middle TN.  Seeing a group of 255 together was really impressive.  They were 
roosting in a different part of the lake than usual, which was WAY west of 
Cook.  Late in the day it was almost impossible to see the flock. 


The island off Seven Points, where I had the 3 immature/female Common 
Mergansers on the CBC 3 weeks ago, produced an adult male Common Merganser this 
time (plus about 3000 ring-billed gulls).


Few ducks in the area, probably because of 3 guys in a boat with shotguns just 
off the beach at Seven Points.  They didn't get a shot at anything while I was 
there.


As the sun set and light was fading quickly, the gull numbers exploded. LARGE 
numbers of gulls were coming to roost.  The roost (birds on water and in air) 
extended from off Anderson Rd and west of Cook Rec area way out in the middle 
of the lake and all the way around the Cook peninsula to Seven Points and the 
small island.  This was by far the most gulls I've ever seen on Priest.  The 
roost is usually in 2 main groups, except today it was one big long group.


I found the spectacle quite exciting to watch, but did manage a number estimate 
of course:
55,000 Ring-billed Gulls
1,500 Bonaparte's Gulls  This is probably a very low estimate as they came in 
late and suddenly appeared everywhere.


Great birding (albeit really cold!)


Scott Somershoe










State Ornithologist
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
P.O. Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
615-781-6653 (o)
615-781-6654 (fax)

www.tnwatchablewildlife.org
www.pbase.com/shoeman
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[TN-Bird] Gulls, loons, and merganser, oh my!

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