[TN-Bird] Rankin: Piping Plover, etc.

Rankin Bottoms, Cocke county, 8/9/08, 5:30-8:30 PM.  By car & canoe
Douglas Lake elevation: 980 ft.

The low road (the old RR bed) across the bottoms is now exposed and  
the mudflats have expanded , so viewing from land is easier.  Leslie  
G. and I drove along the road past a variety of shorebirds, then  
turned  left toward the river - we saw an immature White Ibis and  
juvenile Little Blue Herons near the shallow pond extending from the  
dike back through the trees. We then launched our canoe near the coal  
tipple and floated toward Leadvale.  We spotted a molting Black- 
bellied Plover, and then a nearby Piping Plover - they were directly  
across from open view from the road past the tipple.  Continuing  
around under the RR trestle , we found shorebirds - mostly Lesser  
Yellowlegs, Pectoral Sandpipers, and Killdeer - in the emergent  
stubble west of the trestle.

Partial list:

Wood Duck (28)
Blue-winged teal (4 - FOS)
Great Egret (150+)
Little Blue Heron (4 juvenile)
Green Heron (9)
Black-crowned Night Heron (25)
White Ibis (1 juvenile)
Red-tailed Hawk
Black-bellied Plover
Semipalm. Plover (10)
Piping Plover
Killdeer (78)
Lesser Yellowlegs (7)
Spotted Sandpiper (6)
Semipalm. Sandpiper (1 juvenile)
Least Sandpiper (52 juv.)
Pectoral Sandpiper (15)
Yellow-throated Vireo -seen near the gate at the end of the old RR bed

I'll post photos after I've sorted through them.

Michael Sledjeski







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