[TN-Bird] Winter Bird Weekend

Nov. 22-23-24, 2002
Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge - Lauderdale Co. TN
Reelfoot Area - Dyer, Lake and Obion Co. TN
Pace Point area - Henry and Benton Co. TN
Lake #9 - Fulton Co. KY

In a quest to find another bird or birds to add to my TN year list, I covered 
a few areas and found a lot of winter birds had moved in during the previous 
week. I did sneak out of the state (just a half mile) to view the nice little 
and cooperative Common Ground-Dove that Hap Chambers and Roseanna Denton 
found at Lake # 9 in Kentucky. Try as I might I could not shoo the bird into 
Tennessee after everyone left. ;o)

Friday afternoon, I ran out of light before I could look over all of the 
horde of ducks at Lauderdale. No swans or geese were to be seen among the 14 
species of waterfowl seen just at dusk. Early the next morning while riding 
the levee I had a Coyote, Skunk, Red Fox and a Bobcat cross the road in front 
of my car. It seemed everything was moving including a family group of 
Western Meadowlarks that flushed from the roadside and into a tree. They were 
pale as ghosts in the bright morning sun; my first for the season. Lapland 
Longspurs were seen in fairly large groups in two locations.

Arriving at the Smith's Longspur field I found some guys running their Beagle 
Hounds. I parked and watched as sparrow after sparrow was flushed. After 45 
minutes I saw 4 birds fly in from the south and start the circling flight and 
gyrations so indicative of Smith's Longspur. I was able to see a male quite 
well as it circled near but they never set down and returned to the harvested 
fields across the road to the south. 

I think these birds are probably just coming into feed in the short Aristida 
grass and roosting in the open scrubby fields. They just do not like the tall 
grass surrounding the sparse Aristida that leaves them vulnerable to a sneak 
attack. If they had only waited a little longer to cut the grass in the 
field, I feel like we would have had more of these birds again hanging in 
this field but it is early in the season yet. 

I found a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk in the block of land northeast of the 
Phillippy Unit at Black Bayou. This maybe the same bird that hunted in the 
area last year. It was a beauty hovering in the morning sun. A trip around 
the lake indicated a lot of birds had arrived but the white capping waves and 
limited access for viewing left few species IDed. I did see a few Greater 
White-fronted Geese and strings of Snow Geese heading south into the wind. 
Lots of Bald Eagles floated, rock solid in the wind above the lake and an 
unprecedented number of both vultures were seen ketteling in the area.

At Port Road overlook, I had about 90 Common Loons and added another 100+ 
from Trailer Road but no Pacific or Red-throated. Both adult, Lesser 
Black-backed Gulls came to roost at dusk along with multi-thousands of 
Bonaparte's Gulls that started into the area from the north and continued 
well after the sun went down. Sunday, I never saw these adults but did find 
one Lesser Black-backed immature. Even larger numbers than ever of Horned 
Grebes were seen and big pods of Pied were also very numerous.

The area produced 22 species of waterfowl with a very sparse number of geese 
but huge flotillas of divers. Still looking for Great Black-backed Gull, 
Red-necked Grebe or Tundra Swan. The Smith's Longspurs were a welcomed 
addition to the year list that I thought I might have missed and this coming 
week is my favorite time to search out a Snow Bunting, maybe Thanksgiving Day 
will do the trick again. Anyhow the winter birds are in...............

Good Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL' COOT / TLBA
Bartlett Tenn.


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