[TN-Bird] Probable Snow Bunting, Round Bald, Carter Co, TN
- From: david kirschke <dkirschke@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Bristol Birds <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, TN-birds <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2011 17:24:38 -0800 (PST)
I spent the afternoon hiking around Carver's Gap. Small patches of snow
remained and the wind was pretty brisk. Just as I reached the top of Round
Bald and paused to enjoy the view a young boy came running up and flushed a
small, lightly colored white and brown bird. The bird flew up from the grass
about 20 feet away from me and headed up and away. The bird had white
underneath, white in the tail and face, and white wing patches. It flew
erratically a long way over to the gap between Round and Grassy(?) Balds. I
lost sight of the bird before it landed and spent 1-2 hours hiking around the
gap hoping to get a photo without relocating it. In my limited experience
(n=3) it is possible to almost step on a Snow Bunting without flushing it, so
it is possible if the boy had not scared this bird I might have overlooked
entirely. Anyway, with the patches of snow and brown grass it would have taken
a bit of luck to spot a bird that was hunkered
down in the wind feeding. Don't know what the bird could have been except
Snow Bunting.
The link below is a photo of a Snow Bunting I saw in FL last winter. That bird
was hunkered in the grass next to a sidewalk in a park and I walked right past
it within 10 feet and didn't see it despite the fact that it was inside a 10
foot square police tape barricade. Needless to say I felt pretty silly when I
walked back and found it there. It moved less than a foot in the 30 minutes I
observed it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkirschke/6413942673/in/set-72157612135520568
David Kirschke
Johnson City, TN
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