[TN-Bird] Obion Co Goodies (Patagonia picnic table effect continues); 12/21/2013
- From: Michael Todd <birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: TN Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2013 12:47:51 -0800 (PST)
12/21/2013
Obion Co
I spent about 3 hours this morning looking for some of the great birds Mark
found over the last couple of days up around Union City. Weather wasn't as big
a factor as I had feared, just a lot of wind and very low lighting conditions.
They got an enormous amount of rain overnight, several of the roads in the area
are flooded. Luckily, there are an abundance of roads, so no long detours
necessary.
The Say's Phoebe was still present, though still moving around a lot. This
morning, it was at the pond north of the house, along the fence right along the
road, for some hopefully marginally better photos than I got yesterday. It flew
out into the stubble across the road, then returned to the fence, and worked
its way up the fence and over the hill out of sight. I came back by later,
didn't see it but didn't spend any time looking.
My best bird of the day was a female Yellow-headed Blackbird mixed in a huge
mixed flock along Central High North Rd. I was just scoping thru a flock,
hoping for some Brewer's around the edge, when I got the Yellow-headed. Bird
was quite distant, and a Harrier came by and flushed the birds before I got my
digiscoping setup to cooperate. Lots of blackbirds to go thru in this area...
I saw the juvenile dark (or intermediate) morph Rough-legged Hawk in about the
same location Mark posted, just sitting out in the field along Autman Rd. I was
distracted by some Laps that came and landed right by me, and the hawk was gone
when I looked back that way. This bird had a very pale head heavily streaked
breast, but very little contrast between underwing coverts and carpals as a
light-morph would show, assuming the same one Mark had? Didn't see the
light-morph Roughie Mark had, nor the Prairie Falcon. As Mark said, good
numbers of Redtails around, including a nice adult and juvenile dark-morph
calurus.
Also didn't have any luck with the Spotted Towhee. Spent about 30 minutes along
the road there, and never heard or found the ground-feeding portion of the
flock; no Towhees or White-throats. Did have a nice arboreal flock, which
included a surprise Blue-gray Gnatcatcher. Also had a Palm Warbler out in a
stubble field, and flushed a couple of Vesper Sparrows from the roadside.
Will add a few photos later.
Good Birding!!
Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd
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- » [TN-Bird] Obion Co Goodies (Patagonia picnic table effect continues); 12/21/2013 - Michael Todd
