We checked out Rankin Bottoms on foot today. Douglas Lake has risen rapidly
(to 981.5) and half the flats are flooded. The road to & through the coal
tipple is still high and dry, and in excellent condition - graded, widened,
and graveled. Canada geese, mallards, blue-winged teal, wood ducks,
double-crested cormorants, great blue herons, cliff & tree swallows, &
red-winged blackbirds were plentiful. Also:
Northern shoveler Redhead (4) Diving ducks? They were in grassy shallows with the teals) Great egret (FOS, with breeding plumage flowing in the breeze) Osprey (6) Bald eagle (5 immatures, perched around the gate on the old RR bed) American coot (8) Greater yellowlegs(42) Lesser yellowlegs (37) Solitary sandpiper (FOS) Red-headed woodpecker Eastern kingbird (FOS) Blue-gray gnatcatcher, nesting Brown-headed cowbird Yellow-rumped warbler (13) Palm warbler Prothonotary warbler (9) Savannah sparrow Orchard oriole (FOS) Baltimore oriole (FOS)
Michael Sledjeski & Leslie Gibbens Cocke county TN
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