The Sooty Tern was back at Musick's Campground, South Holston Lake, TN this
afternoon and left nothing to the imgaination. It flew past the campground
maybe a dozen times in a three and one-half hour period. It also flew into
Virginia waters, establishing a new region record.
4:30 p.m. -- The large tern apporached from the southeast (left) and flew over
the main channel, pausing to turn in wide circles which revealed the necessary
tell-tell field markings. John Shumate and Wallace Coffey had spotting scope
and got great looks at the Sooty with excellent lighting and the intense
brightness from over our shoulder. Howard Langridge was present. The bird
flew off into Washington County, VA establishing a new species record for
Southwest Virginia.
6:30 p.m. -- Shumate departed at 6:20 p.m. and Coffey was alone when the
Sooty returned, flying down the lake on the far side and passing out of sight
around the bend. Coffey got a good study on it at some distance.
6:44 p.m. -- Mike Poe arrives and we continue to bird. He sets up his 1200
mm magnification, long, telescopice camera lens with a mounted digital camera.
6:56 p.m -- Rack and Sammy Cross arrive to bird for the remainder of the
evening.
7:10 p.m. -- The Sooty returns, flying back up the lake and everyone gets a
long study. The bird remains in the area for 34 minutes without leaving --
constantly flying past Musick's Campground and into Virginia and back. It
continued on the wing until last seen at 7:54 p.m. It dove to near the
surface of the water several times. Sometimes it flew high.
Mike Poe took approximately 6 digital photos with his telephoto lens under
various lighting conditions at varying distances.
The bird showed the black wings above, black nape, mantle, rump and tail. It
had a distinctive forked tail and the streamer tail feathers revealed white.
There was no dark spur on he side of the neck and breast as seen in a Black
Tern. The loral stripe at the eye was distinctive as it divided the black
upper head from the white below.
The underside of the wings were white coverts with the primaries and
secondaries being dark, giving a two tone effect to the underwing. A slight
white leading edge could be seen on the front of the wing. It flew with a
strong wing stroke and ranged over a considerable area.
Let's go birding.....
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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