[TN-Bird] Raptor Weekend / Photos

Jan. 28 / 29, 2006
Ensley Bottoms, Shelby Co. TN
Tunica Co, MS
 
I was joined by a couple of fearless birders, willing to get wet on  Saturday 
and we were rewarded with a fine array of raptors and a few other  good 
species for our efforts. We started with pretty good weather at  TVA Lake and 
scanned the huge flock of Lesser and Greater Scaup. There were  a lot of 
Ring-billed Gulls and DC Cormorants plus, Hooded Mergs, Gadwall,  Mallard, 
Canvasback, 
Redhead, Ring-necked, Green-winged Teal, Northern Shoveler,  and single Ruddy 
and Buffleheads. Down the road the two female Common Goldeneye  still are 
hanging out in a barrow pit with a male Hooded, a strange  trio.
 
We had scanned out a couple of bill tagged Lesser Scaup when all heck broke  
loose as a male Peregrine decided to break the peaceful scene of  sleepy 
waterfowl. He charged in and dived and turned right in front of us,  putting 
everything in flight, chasing one scaup into diving back into the water  with 
such 
force it looked like an explosion. Pulling up, Speedo chased a DC  Cormorant 
and then a Red-tailed Hawk which defended itself by rolling on its  back and 
presenting the Peregrine with the raptor equivalent of a double  high eight. 
The 
Peregrine suddenly pulled up and sat on a nearby tower and  eventually slipped 
away. Whuweee!!
 
While standing there, we had scope looks at both eastern and western light  
morph Red-tailed Hawks, an immature dark morph and an adult Krider's along with 
 Kestrel and Cooper's Hawk.
On our way south, we stopped briefly at Robco Lake to find more resting  
ducks and DC Cormorants but no pelicans. We started our MS trek in the rain and 
 
located more than 4 Krider's of different vintages, 2 more dark morph Red-tails 
 and my winter resident dark morph Harlan's on station. We had scope looks at 
a  perched Barn Owl that slept through its portrait being taken. A short time 
 searching for the Ferruginous Hawk was not fruitful but I would think it may 
 still be in the area. Northern Harrier's were found in good numbers along 
with  many Kestrels and Shrikes. 
 
Rusty and Brewer's Blackbirds were located along with Greater and Lesser  
Yellowlegs, Dunlin, Least Sandpipers and hundreds of Killdeer. In one field we  
saw a huge, tightly packed flock of shorebirds land in a plowed area and  
pulled out the scope to find 3-400 Wilson's Snipe looking like just more dirt  
clods in the rain. I had snipe just about in every wet field on Sunday as they  
are grouping up and easing back north.
 
In the rain and wind, we found over 25 Sandhill Cranes and smaller than  
usual flocks of geese with Greater White-fronted almost out numbering the Snows 
 
and Ross's. We sat in the truck and scoped Lapland Longspurs at 30 feet and  
found the bright males out numbered the females in one group, while on Sunday, 
I 
 had another large group where the immature and females greatly outnumbered 
the  males.
 
I returned Sunday to try for a few photos in the sun and got some pretty  
fair photos of an adult, rufous morph Red-tailed Hawk hunting off the Coldwater 
 
River Levee in Tunica Co.
 
I've posted a few photos from the weekend on my winter site at:
 
_http://www.pbase.com/ol_coot/winter2006_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/ol_coot/winter2006) 
 
Scroll down to the last 8 photos............
 
 
Good Birding  !!!
Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA
6298 Memphis-Arlington Road
Bartlett, TN  38135


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