[TN-Bird] Thayer's Gull- Savannah,TN 1-13-04
- From: <birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2004 22:35:34 -0600
1-13-04
Pickwick/Savannah area
Hardin Co.
Highlights:
After having to make myself go to work this weekend, I finally was able
to get over to Savannah and Pickwick today to see if I could come up
with any leftovers from Jeff & Co.'s blitz through the area. I had one
bird in particular that has eluded me several times in TN (usually in
this area) that I was really hoping for. Surely, with two Thayer's in
the area I could come across at least one of them! California would be
great as well, as my experience with it can be counted on one finger,
and that goes back several years.
I arrived at the pools just north of the Hwy 64 bridge at about 08:00
this morning, and there were about 200 gulls in the area at the time.
However, only one of these was one of the larger species, a pretty
standard 1st-winter Herring Gull. After a 45-minute vigil here, I
decided to go to the Pickwick Dam area to see what might be hanging
around there. Very little. There were less than 75 gulls in the area
both above and below the Dam, and only a handful of Herring's. A check
of the campground area below the Dam produced the 1st surprise of the
day while working the pines for Brown-headed Nuthatches. A single
Blue-headed Vireo was in a nice mixed feeding flock in the edge of the
pines. I finally found a couple of the target Nuthatches, to get them
off the year list early. The pines were ringing with the trills of Pine
Warblers.
After checking a couple of other areas, with nothing to report, I headed
back to Savannah to see what might have dropped in the area where the
Gull bonanza was found Saturday. When I returned, numbers of Bonies and
Ringers were up to about 300, but still only one Herring. I watched the
area for about an hour, thoroughly enjoying the antics of the gulls, and
had decided to go get a bite to eat at about 11:45. I went through the
gulls one more time before leaving, and from somewhere a small, velvety
brown Herring type gull had arrived, THE THAYER'S! I observed and
(attempted to) photograph this bird for the next couple of hours, before
hunger drove me to get something to eat. This is the darker Thayer's
that was found here Saturday. The bird swam, loafed, preened, slept,
fed, and played with about every stick it came across while I watched
it, and treated me to several nice flights around the area, but never
left. I had phenomenal looks at the Thayer's, easily the best viewing
I've had of this species. Today about drove the nail in the coffin as
far as getting another camera/video camera to document more distant
birds with though. As has often been the case lately, the Thayer's
stayed right on the edge of where my camera is effective, although I did
manage a few decent shots out of about 100 taken!
When I came back after eating, the Thayer's and Herring had been joined
by another Herring, and the gull numbers peaked at about 350, but I
didn't have either the California, or Lesser Black-backed today. They
were seen on Sunday afternoon though. At about 16:00 the gulls started
leaving the area in mass, heading south, with all 3 large gulls in the
1st wave. By 16:20 practically all of the gulls had left.
Other interesting birds in the area were 2 Brewer's Blackbirds that
obligingly let me walk right up to the tree they were in for some nice
photos, 5 flyover Lapland Longspurs while watching the Thayer's, a
single calling Least Sandpiper that came into the gull pool, and a
(didn't spend much time) LeConte's Sparrow in the big strip of primarily
Johnson Grass (with panicum mixed in), just west of where the gulls are
on the same road. With the warm weather we're having, a couple of brief
stops on the way home in decent looking areas for Woodcock produced 2
displaying birds.
Thanks once again Jeff!!
Good birding!!
Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
Carroll Co.
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/s/community.dll?ep=16&groupid=116215&ck
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