[TN-Bird] Little Gulls & etc; 11/25/05

11/25/05
Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge to Reelfoot Lake area
Lauderdale & Lake Co. (all birds mentioned in Lake Co. unless otherwise 
noted)

Don Manning and I decided to head back over to Reelfoot, as Don needed the 
Little Gull as a lifer, so we met up with Jeff for the day as he was going 
to be in the area as well. It was a very interesting (as well as very cold 
and windy) day, highlights are as follows.

Little Gulls: The lake is literally boiling with Bonaparte's Gulls right 
now, and after much scanning we got looks at both the adult and 1st-winter 
Little Gulls. We had prolonged, though distant, views of the adult off and 
on all afternoon as it worked the lake out from the Keystone area. The 
1st-winter was also glimpsed in the distance in this area, and also seen 
briefly late this afternoon as birds were coming from all directions coming 
to roost, but quickly lost. The general area between Keystone and the State 
Park boardwalk seems to be the place to try for these birds. Be prepared for 
a virtual snowstorm, as the number of gulls late in the day that you have to 
pick through can be daunting. We had no luck with these birds until late 
this afternoon today, in contrast to last Sunday when we had the 1st-winter 
off and on all day.

Regarding gulls, very few Herring Gulls are around, and we didn't see the 
Franklin's today. However, just before we left Jeff picked up a very 
interesting group of 4 pale-mantled smallish gulls, that acted and flew, 
nothing like the hordes of Ringers and Bonies in the area. Looks were very 
distant, and we never could pin them down. Also, at least one Forster's Tern 
is still in the area.

Red-necked Grebe: The Red-necked put on a good show for us: 1st from the 
boardwalk behind the State Park Visitor Center, and then from up closer to 
Keystone. We still had this bird at dusk as we were watching gulls streaming 
in.

Black Scoter: female seen for about 1 minute from boardwalk behind SP 
Visitor Center, before she lifted off by herself and flew out of sight.

Blue-winged Teal: 1 female at Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge (Lauderdale Co.)

Red-tailed Hawks: a couple of nice adult Western light-morph birds, among 
the multitudes of Red-tails on the day.

Short-eared Owl: (Most unusual observation of the day for me) Just north of 
Black Bayou Unit at Reelfoot, at about noon, Jeff picked up a raptor high in 
the distance, with an odd wingbeat. We got closer to the bird, which turned 
out to be a Short-eared Owl. We watched it sail away in the distance, 
interacting a time or two with crows. There was a large field fire in the 
area, which may have put the bird up.

American Tree Sparrow: 1 bird popped up in Black Bayou while we were fussing 
up Sparrows, I believe this is my earliest ever in TN.

Lapland Longspurs: only a few working over the rice stubble at Black Bayou. 
A pass through the Smith's Longspur field at Cates (north of Tiptonville) 
produced no Smith's.

Western Meadowlarks: Don and I had one sitting up in the top of a tree at 
the old airfield site at Halls (Lauderdale Co.) we also had them with Jeff 
at two different locations in Black Bayou, also perched up high.

Rusty & Brewer's Blackbirds: A nice mixed flock on the way into Keystone had 
200+ Rusties and at least 3 Brewer's Blackbirds.

I have placed an image of the Red-necked Grebe, taken late this afternoon, 
in my Red-necked Grebe gallery. Also, a shot of a hybrid Mallard x American 
Black Duck that allowed us good looks at Black Bayou. Hopefully Jeff will 
have a shot or two of various things to share with us as well.

The Red-necked Grebe image is at: http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/52749805
Hybrid image: http://www.pbase.com/image/52750923

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
Carroll Co.
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd



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