8/18/2015
Lake County, TN
Five hours of birding in Lake and Dyer Counties proved worth the drive. There
weren’t as many shorebirds as Ruben Stoll had last week (hundreds vice
thousands), but Island 13 still produced one Neotropic Cormorant, two
Sanderlings, two Piping Plovers, ten Semipalmated Plovers and an Upland
Sandpiper. Best viewing is from the southern portion of Flowers Sheep Ridge
Road. A scope is necessary, unless you have a good imagination. Further south
on Tiptonville-Obion Levee Road, near Reelfoot Hickory Ridge Road, a small pool
left by the spring Mississippi River flooding, was filled with dead or dying
catfish, carp and shad and was packed with herons and egrets. Among them was an
adult Tricolored Heron. At the intersection of Reelfoot Hickory Ridge Road and
Hwy 79 another football field size pool hosted several hundred Pectoral and
Least Sandpipers. Among them were one Ruddy Turnstone and one Sanderling. A
Lesser Yellowlegs at Moss Island (Dyer Co.) brought the shorebird count to 14
for the morning.
Good Birding,
Dick Preston
Munford, TN
Tipton County
