8 SEP 04
Musick's Lakeside Campground
Sullivan Co., TN
.
Musick's Lakeside Campground is a property on the shore opposite the
Washington County Campground and Park and lies just beyond the Virginia state
line at
the Spring Creek embayment. The following report includes no birds actually
observed in Virginia, yet, each could have flown across the state line which
passes through the South Holston Lake.
Just before 5:00 PM this evening I witnessed 14 - RED KNOT and 14 -
Black-bellied Plover fly into Musick's Campground point on South Holston Lake
near
Bristol. Tom McNiel and his son J.T. McNiel joined me as I was still trying to
work out what the gray birds were with the Plovers. Tom and I eventually and
cautiously agreed that similar species were sufficiently eliminated leaving the
Red Knot as our conclusion for the identification of the gray birds. Eric Smith
joined us and independently concluded the same. Wallace Coffey arrived
shortly thereafter and carefully worked through the identification process
himself
before landing on the same identification. Wallace initiated the call the list
and an impromptu field trip ensued. The following folks responded to the call
out: Ron Harrington, Mary Erwin, Judy Roach, Bill Grigsby, Dave Worley, Larry
McDaniel, Rick Knight, Bryan Stevens, Howard Langridge, and Mike Poe.
Unfortunately the Red Knots and Black-bellied Plovers departed before anyone
else arrived. Excited peaked again, however, with the arrival of a single
WHIMBREL which stayed around for all to have a good look. Just as the
excitement
level tapered off Rick Knight shouted out for the crowd to get on a passing
bird he identified as a SOOTY TERN !
Other birds of note include:
Semipalmated Plover -1
Semipalmated Sandpiper - 1
Spotted Sandpiper - 4
Western Sandpiper - 1
Black Tern - 9
Caspian Tern - 3
Common Tern - 8
Forster's Tern - 1
'Til we bird again
Rack Cross
Blountville, TN
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.