[tn-bird] Rankin WMA, Saturday

From: K Dean EDWARDS <kde@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tennessee Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 2002 00:11:47 -0400 (EDT)


Amber and I decided we had done enough work Saturday
and hit the road to Rankin WMA in Cocke Co., TN.
Ron Hoff, Dollyann Myers, Frank Bills and Sharon
Bostick had just arrived when we got there.  Michael
and Leslie Sylva showed up a bit later and gave
Amber and I a canoe tour.  We were paddling back at
sunset as hordes of Great Egrets came in.  Swallows
and shorebirds filled the air and were skimming the
surface all around us.  Bird numbers continued to
increase the longer we stayed.

Awesome experience!  Thanks again to Michael and Leslie.
The water is still high but will drop quickly.  We drug
bottom a lot of the way and I don't know that there was
ever a time that our paddles couldn't touch bottom.
Next weekend might be the peak time.

Best birds were a pair of White Ibis -- one juvenile,
one apparent 1st-year bird -- which did a flyby.  Also
a waterthrush that we didn't get a good enough look at
to ID by sight but, based on Dunn and Garrett's Warbler
guide (any waterthrush seen in the US after 20 Aug is
almost certainly a Northern) was almost almost certainly
a Northern.

Lots of otter tracks in the mud.

Other highlights below, numbers are very estimated.


10 Aug 2002
Rankin WMA, Cocke Co., TN
Douglas Lake at 985 ft
----------------------------

Double-crested Cormorant, 40+

Great Blue Heron, 30+
Great Egret, 270 estimated by counting by tens, came to
   roost on a spit of land at sunset
Snowy Egret, 3
Little Blue Heron, 1 immature
Green Heron, several
Black-crowned Night-Heron, 20+
White Ibis, 2 (1 juvenile, 1 1st year)

Canada Goose, 100+
Wood Duck, 40+
Mallard, 70+
Blue-winged Teal, 3

Osprey, at least 2

Semipalmated Plover, ~10
Killdeer, 100+
Greater Yellowlegs, 1
Lesser Yellowlegs, ~20
Solitary Sandpiper, 10+
Spotted Sandpiper, 2-3
Semipalmated Sandpiper, 15+
Least Sandpiper, 30+
peep sp., 150+?, great swarm of birds were circling around
     at sunset
Pectoral Sandpiper, 30+
dowitcher sp., 2-3, seen from 1-2 miles away, best guess,
     juv. Short-billed

Eastern Kingbird, 30+

Purple Martin, 100+
Tree, N. Rough-winged, Bank, Cliff, Barn Swallows, lots

American Robin, 30+ coming in to bathe and feed, looked
    really out of place

Warbling Vireo, 4
Yellow Warbler, 1
Prothonotary Warbler, 10-15 including 1 fledgling being fed
Northern Waterthrush, 1
Summer Tanager, 1 female




Dean and Amber Edwards
Knoxville, TN


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[tn-bird] Rankin WMA, Saturday

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