[TN-Bird] Re: Middle TN rookery report

Went out by canoe on Woods Reservoir with my daughter to check out the 
rookery.  We had mostly of the same birds Scott reported plus 20 black terns 
flying around us on our way out to the island.  We arrived just in time for the 
2 imm white ibis to fly over us and disappear into the brush.  The best part 
was when on the paddle back, my daughter, who is somewhat of a reluctant 
birder, said, "let's do this again tomorrow!"
Thanks for the post, Scott.

A couple photos of cattle egrets: 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkirschke/3757338479/

--- On Thu, 7/23/09, Scott Somershoe <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx> wrote:

From: Scott Somershoe <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx>
Subject: [TN-Bird] Middle TN rookery report
To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thursday, July 23, 2009, 8:45 PM

On Monday, July 20, my wife and I got a great tour of Woods Reservoir via boat 
by Jeannie and Dale Swant.  We circled Little Elder Isl and watched the birds 
for a couple hours until sunset.  After seeing this site, it is clear that this 
is one of the most important rookeries in middle Tennessee.  Every nesting 
wader in TN other than yellow-crowned night heron (and anhinga) nest here!  
Here is my general tally from the day.

White Ibis - 2 immature birds

Great Blue Heron - ~20 adults and fledglings with a few nests with 1/2 grown 
young still in the nests (getting late for these guys!)

Great Egret - ~30 with some nests having large chicks

Green Heron - 2 adults seen flying in

Snowy Egret - 1 nest with 2 chicks, one adult seen real briefly

Little Blue heron - minimum 3 full adults, at least 3 mottled blue/white birds 
(one of which fed all white fledglings, captured in picts), and at least 10-15 
immature (all white plumaged) birds. Watched some young be fed by adults and 
watched fledglings chase the adults around and around the island. Thought to be 
at least 6 little blue heron nests. 

Black-crowned Night Heron - 3 adults with ~15-20 immature birds

Double-crested Cormorants- ~15 hanging out, mostly juv's, but saw 1 adult, no 
evidence of nesting (thank gosh!)

Cattle Egret - ~500-600 flying to roost, many adults, but also appeared to be 
some older fledglings flying around. A few nests were being incubated or had 
small young. Between adults and immatures flopping around, there were probably 
at least 1000 individuals. Impossible to count nests or even track adults vs 
immatures. 

We also saw one imm Black-crowned Night Heron that was working on getting down 
what was a small white bird, probably nestling cattle egret. We all saw the imm 
night heron with a clump of white feathers sticking out of its mouth. It 
eventually got them all down. Wonder if it stole a chick from a nest or what!?



Thursday, July 23.  Visited Drakes Creek on Old Hickory Lake in Sumner Co.  We 
paddled around the standing sticks that used to be the rookery.  One red maple 
is partly alive, but all nesting trees are dead and falling over.  About 200 
nests remain, most empty as it is late in the year.  Cormorants have taken over 
this rookery and killed everything in only 3 yearswith their caustic waste.  
The trees were all alive (with some bare spots only) in 2006.  Most of the 
birds that nested here are long gone, but I hadn't had a chance to see the site 
yet this year.

Here is the tally:
Great Egret- 2 nests, one with an adult sitting and one with 2 fledglings 
flying around the area

Great Blue Heron- 8 active nests, all with large young (one had half grown 
young), 16 or so adults seen and 15 immatures.

Double-crested Cormorant - Probably 40 active nests still, all with young.  
Lots of adults coming and going and juv's around.  Prob 60 adults, 20 immatures 
seen.

Black-crowned Night Heron - 14 imm birds seen, no adults.  There were 2 small 
dead trees completely packed with small nests and had several fledglings 
hanging out.

Good birding!!
Scott Somershoe


State Ornithologist
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
P.O. Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
615-781-6653 (o)
601-868-0101 (cell)
615-781-6654 (fax)

"Keeping the rubber side down." -SGS
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=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen.  The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
      To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
                    tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________ 
                To unsubscribe, send email to:
                 tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
            with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
  TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 
       Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
        endorse the views or opinions expressed
        by the members of this discussion group.
 
         Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
                 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                ------------------------------
                Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
                         Cleveland, OH
                -------------------------------
               Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
                          Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
         
          Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
              web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
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                          ARCHIVES
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Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com

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