[TN-Bird] Kentucky Lake birds, including Blue Jay migration

From: "Scott Somershoe" <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx>
To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2011 21:28:59 -0500
I decided to try my luck for some early winter birds as the weather was too 
nice to stay inside.  No early winter gulls, loons, or ducks per se, but a 
great day in the field with a few highlights below.

The day started off with a bang at Gray's Landing, which is the boat ramp on 
the east side of the Hwy 79 bridge opposite Paris Landing State Park.  Lots of 
passerine activity with a nice eye-level look at a Yellow-throated Vireo in the 
morning sun being a good start.  A Peregrine Falcon also flew by, heading south.

The highlight was a large Blue Jay migration.  Starting at 8:45, I counted 441 
Blue Jays over the next hour, all flying southbound.  Flocks ranged from 20-69 
birds.  They came in waves with 5 min or so between groups going south.  Some 
of the jays were very high (I thought some were warblers before I looked with 
my binoculars).  We often forget that Blue Jays are a highly migratory species! 
 Quite an impressive movement this morning.  

Paris Landing State Park- as was just mentioned by Shawna Ellis, the island is 
open for roosting.  About 250 ring-billed gulls, 10 herring gulls, and a bunch 
of cormorants were roosting this morning about 10 am.

Eagle Creek (the bay just south of the state park), viewed from end of Durham 
Rd, plenty of mud flats exposed:
3 Black-bellied Plovers
3 Least Sandpipers
1200 Ring-billed Gulls
8 Herring Gulls
6 Caspian Terns
3 Forster's Terns

Britton Ford Unit of Tennessee NWR
1 Sora flushed from dry grassy field
1 Lincoln's Sparrow
bunches of Swamp Sparrows and Marsh Wrens, but no Song Sparrows.
1 Northern Harrier
6 Pectoral Sandpipers
1 Least Sandpiper

Big Sandy Unit of TN NWR- Bennett's Creek Overlook
I flushed a Sora 3 times (more than one bird?) from the grassy fields below the 
overlook.  The bird(s) flew for 2-3 seconds, giving some nice views of this 
bird in awkward, panicked flight.
2 Savannah Sparrows
a lot of Swamp Sparrows, but again no Song Sparrows
1 Sedge Wren
3+ Marsh Wrens (several wrens gave no looks or calls, but flushed, flew about 5 
ft and vanished)
thousands of seeds in my boots and stuck to my socks.

Pace Point - gull roost forming
1 Ring-necked Duck
6 N. Shovelers
3 Caspian Terns among a few hundred Ring-billed Gulls
cormorants hanging out with the ring-billed gulls

Good fall birding with 75 species on the day.
Scott Somershoe











State Ornithologist
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
P.O. Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
615-781-6653 (o)
615-781-6654 (fax)

www.tnwatchablewildlife.org
www.pbase.com/shoeman
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[TN-Bird] Kentucky Lake birds, including Blue Jay migration

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