[TN-Bird] Fw: Rankin GBH rookery &

From: "michael sledjeski" <mtnsylva@xxxxxxx>
To: "TN-bird" <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 22:38:06 -0400

This afternoon, we put in our canoe at the Rankin Bridge boat ramp and paddled 
north as far as McCowan's Creek. Douglas Lake is at 990', close to full summer 
pool, so we explored the flooded thickets and openings on both sides of the 
river.  Near the Old Bridge, we spotted a black snake with a bulging abdomen 
emerging from a wood duck nestbox.  "Caught in the act", said I, "Now that's a 
rare sight".  Ten minutes later, we saw the tail end of another  black snake 
poking out of what was a pileated woodpecker nest cavity in 2004.  This was 40 
feet up in a dead, debarked, branchless cottonwood.  Do black snakes have 
velcro bellies or what?  Thirty feet away, in another cottonwood, is a 
redheaded woodpecker nest hole. We're not unbiased observers here; we'd like 
the black snakes to stick to eating rodents.

Last year, there was a single great blue heron nest on the riverbank across 
from McCowan's Creek.  Today, there were 5 occupied nests, 2 more under 
construction, and a female being courted by 2 males, who alternated in 
presenting sticks and romancing her.  Double-crested cormorants have built 2 
nests in close proximity to the heron rookery.  There are about 100 cormorants 
in the vicinity, but none were at the upriver site of last year's 15-nest 
rookery. 

Most notable:

Cattle egret (3) - first of season
Great egret (15)
Great blue heron (38)
Green heron
Wood duck (28) including a male who was calling from a limb high in a silver 
maple
Blue-winged teal - 1 pair
Bald eagle -(2 immature)
Cooper's hawk
Osprey (8)
Killdeer (5) - no other shorebirds, but we didn't check all shorebird habitat
Ring-billed gull
Yellow-billed cuckoo (4) - FOS
Northern flicker
Downy woodpecker (5)
Pileated       "        (3)
Red-bellied    "
Red-headed    "           (2)
Red-breasted nuthatch
Wood thrush
White-eyed vireo
Warbling vireo
Red-eyed vireo
Common yellowthroat (3)
Prothonotary warbler (24) - you can't get away from these guys
Savannah sparrow
Baltimore oriole (4)
Orchard oriole (6)
   
Michael Sledjeski & Leslie Gibbens
Cocke County TN
     
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[TN-Bird] Fw: Rankin GBH rookery &

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