I spent four days (Oct. 1st-4th 2015) wandering around the Western part
of the state with no specific target, just general birding.
Here are some of the high lights in taxonomic order, with the location
after each species.
Am. Black Duck (one seen coming in to roost on TVA lake in Memphis with
hundreds of mallards)
Mississippi Kite (one migrating with BWHAS and Harrier in Clifton, 1st
County record for me.)
A grand total of 4 shorebird species all in the West seems rather poor.
Sorry, no highlights.
Laughing Gull (1 with gull-flock at Pickwick)
Lesser black-backed gull (5 at Paris Landing, 3 adults, 1 each second and
third cycle)
Caspian Tern (9 at Kentucky Lake Eagle Creek)
Forsters Tern (28 at Kentucky Lake Eagle Creek, 1 at Pickwick)
Common Tern (1 each at Kentucky Lake, Eagle Creek, and Pickwick)
Least Tern (1 juvenile at Island 13)
Peregrine Falcon (4 birds, 1 each Pickwick, Island 13, Britton Ford, DRU
TNWR.)
Merlin (2 birds, 1 at Savannah Bottoms trying to kill a pair of Kestrels,
1 McNairy County)
Yellow -bellied Flycatcher (1 at home in Perry County when I got back,
the only empid of the trip)
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher (1 flying across TN River from Decatur into
Wayne Counties, County first Decatur, 2nd for Wayne)
Philadelphia Vireo (Seen at several locations)
Fish Crow (3 at Pickwick)
CAVE SWALLOW (1 seen with 1500 TRSW, NRWS, and BARS at the mouth of the
Wolf River in Memphis)
Brown-headed nuthatch (several seen with huge flock of Pine Warblers at
Pickwick)
6 Thrush species at Britton Ford, including Veery and Wood Thrush.
Only 17 warbler species for the whole trip (due to high winds every day,
and low birding effort) with a Golden-winged at Britton Ford and a Kentucky
in Lewis County being the highlights.
A few winter sparrows beginning to show;
Savannah Sparrow (a few at Savannah Bottoms and DRU TNWR)
Swamp Sparrow (6 flushed from weedy fields at DRU TNWR)
White-crowned sparrow (Lone juvenile at the DRU TNWR)
Ruben Stoll, Centerville TN.