[TN-Bird] Kyker Bottoms
- From: Charlie <cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: TN-Bird <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 13:28:26 -0700 (PDT)
Hi Folks,
Today (Friday, October 28, 2005) I scouted Kyker Bottoms WMA in south
Blount County, in anticipation of tomorrow?s KTOS trip there. The
weather today was great, as tomorrow is supposed to be. And I saw a
lot of birds, so I hope a bunch of you come on out. Kyker closes to
the public on Monday until spring, so this is our last trip of the
year.
There isn?t much water right now, so unfortunately no ducks can be
seen from any of the parking areas. But it also means you can walk
in to a lot of places where you?d usually be wading. We probably
won't need many scopes tomorrow, since with the small area of water,
the ducks and snipe all got up as I approched. With a group of
people, I'm sure we won't get a chance to scope any tomorrow.
Bill Smith, refuge manager, mowed the paths recently, so it was
relatively easy walking. And the annual plants on the levees are
mostly crushed down now, so it was a lot easier to walk them than it
was a month ago.
Highlights included 8.5 species of sparrows (one only to genus) a
smattering of hawks, several ?First of season? birds (FOS next to
them on list) and possibly 2 Loggerhead Shrikes. Not bad for only
about 2.5 hours.
For those who wonder, still, my Blount County list for 2005 stands at
189. That durn Ammodramus would have been 190, since I don't have
ANY from that genus yet this year in this county. Maybe tomorrow. I
am still looking for my first Vesper of the year - anywhere. Am I
just Vesper blind?!?
Here is my list:
3 Great Blue Herons
60 Canada Geese
25 Mallards
30 Green-winged Teal (FOS)
4 Blue-winged Teal
7 Gadwall (FOS)
1 adult Cooper?s Hawk
2 Red-tailed Hawks
2-3 Red-shouldered Hawks
2 American Kestrels (plus 2 others in south Blount County to tie my
record of 4 in a day)
140 (conservatively) Turkey Vultures
12 Black Vultures
a small covey of Bobwhite I scared up near the barn
4 Killdeer
2 Wilson?s Snipe
several Mourning Doves
3 Northern Flickers
2 Downy Woodpeckers
2 Red-bellied Woodpeckers
2 Eastern Phoebes
numerous American Crows
6 Blue Jays
1 Carolina Chickadee
several Carolina Wrens
2 House Wrens
1 Winter Wren (only my 2nd low-elevation Winter Wren of the season)
(no sedge or marsh ? maybe tomorrow!)
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
10+ Eastern Bluebirds
several American Robins ? all flying overhead
3 Northern Mockingbirds
Loggerhead Shrike ? I think I saw 2, but not at the same time, so
possibly just one (FOS)
Many European Starlings
A handful of Yellow-rumped Warblers
5 Northern Cardinals
20+ Chipping Sparrows
4 Field Sparrows
10 Savannah Sparrows ? brilliant in great light! (FOS)
Many Song Sparrows
Many Swamp Sparrows (FOS)
4 White-crowned Sparrows
8 white-throated Sparrows (FOS)
3 Eastern Towhees
1 Ammodramus sparrow. I suspect LeConte?s, but I didn?t get enough
of a look, despite chasing it for 20 minutes. It was flat-headed,
small-bodied, very short tail with distinct, pointy ends to tail
feathers. Always waited until I was 3 feet away before it flew, and
then it went barely above plant level, and only 12-15 feet at a time
and disappeared. I never even glimpsed it through binoculars.
Several small flocks of Red-winged Blackbirds flew over ? all were
single-sex groups, numbering 7 ? 35 birds.
5 Common Grackles
20 House Finches (across street from Kyker)
several American Goldfinches
I also saw an adult Black-crowned Night-heron fly over the
intersection of Broadway and Washington in Maryville this morning
about 7am.
I saw no herps, no odonates, and only a smattering of mostly worn-out
lepidopterans. However the 6 Monarchs I saw were all looking pretty
fresh. Muskrats were playing conspicuously along the one levy that
runs perpendicular to the road between the barn and the "middle"
parking lot.
Good day!
Charlie
*******************************************************************
Charlie Muise, Naturalist near
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
"To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illuminated mind
the whole world sparkles with light." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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