[Bristol-Birds] Bonaparte meets his Waterloo(n)
- From: Dnldhlt@xxxxxxx
- To: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx,butternuts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 21:06:59 EST
I birded in the vicinity of South Holston Lake today, Thursday, Oct. 31.
Some of the things I found interesting included a couple of late Tree
Swallows below Osceola Island, two male and one female Hooded Merganser above
Osceola Island, and along a nearby road a Brown Creeper in a mixed feeding
flock. The Ring-billed Gulls and Herring Gulls above Osceola Island were
easy to compare and contrast as they stood preening together. Musick's
Campground yielded half a dozen Ruddy Ducks.
I also observed an American Kestrel leave his perch and land in a field,
pick up something with his bill, and fly back to his perch. He then held the
catch in his foot and ate it in two or three bites. It seemed to be about
the size and shape of a grasshopper.
The most remarkable thing I saw today, though, was at Musick's
Campground at 4 pm. A lone adult Bonaparte's Gull was hunting in tandem with
a Common Loon. The gull would swim just a few feet from the loon. When the
loon would dive, the gull flew up, circling and hovering, then usually landed
just a split second before the loon surfaced beside it. Often, the gull
would hover-glean from the surface while the loon was underwater, sometimes
right at the spot, and just before, the loon surfaced. I watched this for
probably 15 or 20 minutes. A couple of times, the gull rested on the surface
while the loon was underwater, but when the loon resurfaced the gull flew
over and landed beside it.
In the background during all this I had vaguely noticed a Pied-billed
Grebe diving. At one point, after the loon had been underwater for a moment,
my attention was diverted from the gull by a lot of splashing. I looked in
time to see the loon surface, near where the grebe had been, in a most
peculiar manner; with his wings outstretched and the upper surface of his
wings and back parallel the waters surface, causing the water to mound up and
spill off his back. It made quite a dramatic entrance! At the same time the
Pied-billed Grebe was getting the heck out of Dodge, which I believe was the
splashing that first drew my attention. As the grebe beat his hasty retreat,
the loon reared back, lifting his front out of the water and exposing his
belly and outstretched underwings toward the poor grebe, who didn't stop
until he disappeared somewhere across the Virginia state line. After
watching the grebe's departure, I couldn't relocate the gull or loon. A
small fishing boat had approached the area. But a few minutes later as I
started to leave, one first-winter and three adult Bonaparte's Gulls showed
up with the one loon, all tandem hunting as described. Later another adult
joined the group for a total of five gulls. They were still at it around
4:40 pm when I left to look for the Ross's Goose at Middlebrook Lake. (I
finally found the lake, but not the goose.)
Don Holt
910 Smalling Rd.
Johnson City, TN 37601
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