Big day report, 3 May 2014 As per my previous post, Chris Sloan and I did a Tennessee Big Day on 3 May 2014. We ended with 170 species. We did very well considering we did no scouting outside some intel from Mark Greene and Jay Walko, had no birds staked out, were probably a few days early for a reasonable shot at a handful of birds, plus the MS river is high and there’s a lot of water on the fields in NW TN that spread shorebirds out a lot. Regardless, it was an absolute blast birding even though I’ve never gotten up intentionally that early before, we had a great day and saw a ton of cool stuff, and set the stage for a serious assault next year! Anyway, here’s my lengthy recap on the day. Enjoy. At 3am, we started at the old airpark inn at Reelfoot where we got our expected Barred and Great Horned Owl, and a surprise flyover American Pipit giving its distinct call. We stopped at the Phillippy unit of Black Bayou to try for the Sora and Virginia Rail that Mark Greene had reported earlier in the week. Sora was quickly heard, but we never got Virginia Rail (incl. on a subsequent late morning stop). Very little passerine nocturnal migration was occurring, which wasn’t good for nabbing birds at night and concerned us a tad, but it ended up being very birdy later on. At the end of the road in the Wheelchair hunting area of Black Bayou Refuge we tried for Screech owl, but Barreds started calling right away, so we abandoned. We stopped along the partly flooded field halfway back to Hwy 78. I think I had just done playback for Virginia Rail and had been standing there listening quietly and scanning the field with a bright flashlight when a BARN OWL flew in and landed in the lone small tree near the edge of the field! We both got a good look at the bird! Mental note: Virginia rail playback may be an attractant of Barn Owl! That was absolutely bizarre! High fives at 3:30 am and pre-caffeine are uncoordinated, but exciting nonetheless!! We then headed to the hills east of Reelfoot hoping for a Chuck-wills-widow. No Chucks, but at a TWRA managed lake on Bogus Hollow Rd we had a Black-billed Cuckoo give its distinct flight call about 430am. By dawn we had 19 species, including Gray-cheeked and Swainson’s Thrush, both cuckoos, 3 owls, Field Sparrow, Indigo Bunting, Yellow-breasted Chat, among others. We spent 3 hours on Walnut Log Rd at Reelfoot NWR. We got about 80 species here, including 23 warblers, all 6 vireos (not Bells), Veery, annoying Northern Waterthrushes doing a good impersonation of Connecticut Warbler (this HAS to be commonly confused!), and our only Common Nighthawk of the day was flying over the road at 530am. Highlight was certainly the 5 Golden-winged Warblers! We then hit the hills again and got Prairie Warbler, White-crowned Sparrow, Louisiana Waterthrush, and the first of several Mississippi Kites. Reelfoot Lake had a lot of Forster’s Terns, a likely Common Tern we couldn't confirm, Laughing Gull, Herring Gull, 3 Bonaparte’s Gulls, and a couple White Pelicans, plus Ruddy Ducks and about a million fisherman. Black Bayou Wheelchair hunting area yielded another Sora that we got nice looks at, and our only Marsh Wren and Lincoln’s Sparrow. We ran into Glen Criswell while we were leaving. We were almost to the car when he yelled “American Bittern”. It had flown and was gone, but we scanned anyway and somehow I spotted it perched in a tree about 6 ft off the water! We almost certainly walked by that bittern twice! That was awesome! Goose pond on Black Bayou Refuge had a lot of shorebirds including Stilt Sandpipers, a couple hundred Lesser Yellowlegs, 9 Wilson’s Phalaropes, both dowitchers, Gadwall and other waterfowl, among other birds. I’m certain I heard a snipe call once, but I never saw it nor heard it again, so we didn’t count it. We saw a Northern Harrier and a couple Black-necked Stilts just north of the Tiptonville Ferry Landing as the only notable birds from the Ibis Hole all the way to Dyer Co. We saw NO birds on the Mississippi River. Maybe it was a few days early for Least Tern (which was a concern of mine). My Bank Swallow nesting site stakeout was flooded by the MS river and there were no swallows there at all! We zipped to Memphis and swung through Presidents Island. We quickly found 6 Western Kingbirds and a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, but missed Painted Bunting here. However we added our ONLY American Kestrel here. Onto the Pits and on the way we managed to get our FIRST Eastern Bluebird at 4:04 pm! I don’t think I’ve ever been excited to see an Eastern Bluebird before! We spent maybe 1:15 at the Pits, but added Dunlin, White-rumped Sandpiper, all 3 peeps, 80 Wilson’s Phalaropes (this is a very good number of birds for TN), 12 Am. Golden-Plovers on high ground in one of the ponds, Pectorals, the expected Black-bellied Whistling Duck, but also the recently reported Fulvous was very easily found. One song sparrow was found as well, and it was our only one of the day! We flushed a male Painted Bunting from the end of the road alongside the big main pit by the mature forest and then we were on the road. I’m pretty sure I had a Little Blue Heron over a pond on Riverport Rd, but we couldn’t turn around fast enough and it was gone. We contemplated all that we’d missed today and decided to go to Shelby Forest WMA for Swainson’s, Cerulean, and Hooded Warbler, which we got between 6:05-6:30pm! Lots of thrushes and other warblers along the check station road. We did manage to get a House Finch at 5:58pm at a house on the way to Shelby Forest WMA. We almost missed House Finch! We went to Eagle Lake Refuge for sunset for the lack of a better plan and had to hike down the hill as this gate was closed as well. We added Pied-billed Grebe on the only bit of water around. A likely Peregrine Falcon at sunset frustratingly got away from me. We tried in vain for chuck and whip in Millington (which was a colossal waste of time, but we found a big pine stand that should have pine warblers) and went to Natchez Trace SP in Carroll Co to try for the nightjars and screech owl. At Natchez Trace SP we got whips on our second stop, but after what seemed like 20 stops, and literally the last stop I could do before I collapsed in exhaustion, we got a screech. We were in a church parking lot next to a cemetery somewhere in the forest. I always say cemeteries are good birding spots and thank goodness this panned out for us. It was 11:25 pm, we’d been birding for 21 hours, and we were exhausted. The screech got us species # 170, which put us solely in second place for TN Big days. With some scouting and bird stake outs (like screech owl!), better water levels (MS too high), and a little luck, we both think 180 was possible on Saturday with this route. Misses from our day: Pine Warbler (and Canada among a few others that were likely around), Little Blue Heron, Snowy Egret, both night-herons, Cattle Egret, Green Heron, Caspian Tern, Chuck-wills-Widow, Grasshopper Sparrow, Willow and Least Flycatcher, Bank Swallow, Broad-winged Hawk, and Hooded Merganser! You always miss something! Again, we missed Belted Kingfisher, but they can be hard this time of year without a known nest site staked out. We also could have gotten the Harris’s Sparrow, which for the first time was frequent all day at the feeder in Millington, but with no scouting and a weak plan late in the day, we blew a few opportunities. Next year! Regardless, it was a great time with great birds and we way too much fun (and I drank way too much Mountain Dew) so all in all it was a fantastic day. Great birding! Scott Somershoe