[TN-Bird] Heron Survey of Little Elder Is. (Fkln Cty)

From: Jerry Ingles <jerryingles@xxxxxxxxx>
To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 11:54:13 -0700 (PDT)
While planning this year's "big count" of the heron
roost on Little Elder Island (Woods Resevoir) for
September 8 or 9 for a better comparison to last
year's count on 9/9, Dale Swant suggested that we do
an "early" count for Green Heron and Black-crowned
Night-Herons (BCNH) on the assumption that we had been
"post-peak" on these two species last year.

So with Lloyd, Cathy and Jeannie Swant in one boat and
Dale and me in the other, we counted 16 Green Herons
and 4 BCNH as they came into the island yesterday
evening, August 26.  We made no attempt to
systematically count the many Cattle Egrets, Little
Blue Herons and Great Egrets also present, not to
metion the thousands of Red-winged Blackbirds.

Also seen in the immediate area were 16 Black Terns,
4-6 Forster's Terns, up to 200 Cormorants and an
Osprey.

A very interesting bird was an apparent sub-adult
Little Blue with dark primaries, some white
secondaries followed by more dark wing feathers, then
more white.  This pattern was symmetrical on both
wings.  Thus it looked like a dark winged bird with
2(!) white vertical bars on each wing.

I'm hoping those with greater knowledge of molt
patterns and feather groups can make sense of this for
us.

When the bird first appeared flying toward the island
it seemed to be a dark bird with a white belly causing
the momentary impression of a Tri-colored Heron, but
the wings and the non-contrasting head, back and chest
color argued otherwise.

The evening of glorious birds was following by a
stunning sunset on one side of the boats and a
gorgeous moonrise on the other while Jupiter watched
the proceedings.




Jerry Ingles
Sewanee, TN (Franklin Country)

It has been my very great fortune to find an incredibly wonderful bird.
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[TN-Bird] Heron Survey of Little Elder Is. (Fkln Cty)

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