[TN-Bird] Hooded Merganser with [young] at Joachim Bible Refuge (Greene Co., TN)
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <butternuts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 8 Apr 2012 19:46:49 -0400
Hey Don Miller and all,
I pulled the trigger a little quick calling the young Hooded Mergansers
nestlings.
Obviously from your report, they were not in a NEST. Sorry about that.
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
----- Original Message -----
From: Wallace Coffey
To: butternuts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ; TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ;
bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: April 08, 2012 07:41
Subject: [butternuts] Hooded Merganser with nestlings at Joachim Bible Refuge
(Greene Co., TN)
Hi Don Miller,
A female Hooded Merganser with young, An excellent find! Good posting
with
great detail. Ya never know what is out there until you go look. I don't
know if there
has been any other breeding of this species in East Tennessee other than
down
around Chattanooga. Thank you !
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
----- Original Message -----
From: Alice Loftin / Don Miller
To: TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ; bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ;
butternuts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: April 08, 2012 07:27
Subject: [butternuts] Nesting success at Joachim Bible Refuge (Greene Co.,
TN)
April 8, 2012
Greene County: Joachim Bible Refuge unit of Lick Creek Bottoms Wildlife
Management Area (JBR)
I visited JBR this afternoon for a couple of hours, fortuitously meeting
Eric Bodker, a birder from Knoxville.
Eric had been at the refuge since late morning and had located some
shorebirds, waterfowl, and a mated pair of Barn Owls with two accompanying
downy young. He and I also viewed the owls together shortly after I arrived.
They were present in the large barn bey ond the gate at the end of Matthews
Lane (the western entrance to the refuge).
After Eric and I observed the owls, we walked from the barn to the far
western border of the refuge to check the ponds at that end. Along the way, as
we walked under trees at the edge of a wet wooded area near the pond at the
corner of the refuge, we saw about eight ducklings swimming behind a female
that we could not at first see clearly. As we waited, she came into view, at
least for me, and I was astonished to see that she was not a Wood Duck, as I
had expected, but a Hooded Merganser. I clearly saw the characteristic
merganser silhouette, which distinguished her at a glance from a Wood Duck, and
the full, "puffy," brownish crest distinguished her from any other mergansers.
The young were dark-bodied with prominent brownish-rufus on the head, their
coloration suggestive of female Hooded Mergansers. The appearance was very
different from that of Wood D uck ducklings, which I have often seen.
The size of the young led us to think that they might have been several
days old, maybe a week. They were about four to five inches long and quite
active and alert. Mother and brood swam quickly beyond our view in the dense,
flooded vegetation.
The area where we observed the birds is about a tenth of a mile from the
tree-lined creek at the back of the refuge. Because the area was flooded, it
in effect had become part of the pond nearby. At its nearest point to the
creek, the western edge of the pond is probably not more than a hundred feet
away.
Barn Owl has been a confirmed breeder in Greene County for many years.
Today's observation offers the only confirmed nesting evidence in the county
for Hooded Merganser and represents one of only a tiny number of records for
East Tennessee. However, it is interesting to note that Chuck Nicholson's
Atlas of the Breeding Birds o f Tennessee shows Hooded Merganser as a possible
breeder in one survey block in Greene County.
Other species of note at the refuge today (my count; Eric's may differ):
Blue-winged Teal (21)
Northern Shoveler (9)
Green-winged Teal (36)
Hooded Merganser (12 females in addition to the breeder)
Pied-billed Grebe (3)
Great Egret (1)
Black-crowned Night-Heron (2)
American Coot (22)
Greater Yellowlegs (19)
Lesser Yellowlegs (5)
Wilson's Snipe (4)
Savannah Sparrow (2)
Don Miller
Greeneville, Greene Co., TN
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