[TN-Bird] Little Gull and Red Crossbills - North MS

October 17, 2004
Arkabutla Dam
Desoto and Tate CO. MS

I got a call from Q. B. Gray Saturday afternoon at 4 PM, he had found a 
juvenile plumaged LITTLE GULL off Plantation Point on Arkabutla Lake. I was 
scanning the Mississippi from Mud Island at the time and since I had never seen 
this 
gull in that plumage, I was off and running. Arkabutla Lake is just a little 
over 20 miles south of Memphis. Unfortunately the bird was not there at 5:15. I 
stayed till the birds went to roost and found a nice array of birds, hundreds 
of White Pelicans, Green-winged Teal, Gadwall, Mallards, Lesser Scaup, Ruddy 
Duck, Pintail, Shoveler, Caspian Tern, Ring-billed, Franklin's and Herring 
Gulls plus a Blue Goose.

Sunday AM, I met Q. B. and we returned to the area and scanned the flock of 
gulls and after 45 minutes a Franklin's Gull moved and there was the Little 
Gull in all its glory. Every time I see this gull I'm set back by just how 
small 
it is. The bird had been standing behind the larger Franklin's the whole time. 
With the dull overcast sky and the distance I was able to get a couple of 
poor ID photos. The bird looks almost all dark when sitting with black crown, 
back and partial collar and in the air the dramatic pattern of black and white 
is 
stunning.

After Q. B. left, I met Gene and Shannon Knight and we searched the rest of 
the day with no luck relocating the bird but we did find over 50 Franklin's 
Gulls, 1 Laughing Gull, a few adult and immature Herring and Bonaparte's Gulls, 
tons of Ring-billed, 40 plus Forster's Terns and 1 Common Tern. A single Common 
Loon was seen along with 8 species of shorebirds.

As we were scanning from the south side of the lake late in the day, Shannon 
called Gene's attention to some call notes coming from the top of a nearby 
pine tree. Gene called out crossbills and off the 5 of us ran, (we had been 
joined by Q. B. Gray and Don McKee) soon finding at first 2 and then a total of 
5 
RED CROSSBILLS. Earlier in the day I had told Q. B. the trees looked awfully 
good for crossbills. Don McKee had driven up from the coast for the Little Gull 
but got the crossbills for his Mississippi BIG YEAR List and will try again 
tomorrow morning for the Little Gull. He just needs a couple more to tie the 
old 
record of 317.




Good Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett, TN


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