I went down to the Duck River Unit of Tennessee River NWR in New
Johnsonville today with the dream of finding a Ruff. That did not happen,
and there is not much shorebird habitat. The flood gates are open and water
is up to the road in much of the refuge. However, in the field to the right
after the first little pull in area (sorry, I can never remember which pool
is which), there is a sizeable mudflat where I had dozens of Yellowlegs,
mainly Lesser, as well as Pectoral and Least Sandpipers, one breeding
plumaged Dunlin, some Long-billed Dowitchers, seven Semipalmated Plovers,
and at long last at least two White-rumped Sandpipers. "Long last" because
they are my overdue state birds, #313 for Tennessee.
Driving around the rest of the refuge did not yield many surprises. Tons of
indigo Buntings and Common Yellowthroats, and several other singing warbler
species. Dickcissels are back and singing. I scoped the large heron rookery
island, however, and I am almost certain there was a pale breasted female
Anhinga hiding in the branches. I just couldn't get a good enough look to
be 100% certain it wasn't a pale young Cormorant, but the neck looked much
too thin.
And then speaking of Cormorants, on my return to the front of the refuge, a
nice NEOTROPIC CORMORANT was perched on a log in first pool by the entrance
(pool 6?). It then slid into the water and swam around with a larger
Double-crested. The mudflat seemed even more submerged by that time, and
almost all of the shorebirds were gone, replaced by 5 Caspian Terns and a
bleached out looking Red-breasted Merganser.
All in all, well worth the trip for a nemesis state bird. Link to full
checklist in eBird below for anyone interested.
https://ebird.org/checklist/S67999293
Graham Gerdeman
Nashville
