Went out by canoe on Woods Reservoir with my daughter to check out the rookery. We had mostly of the same birds Scott reported plus 20 black terns flying around us on our way out to the island. We arrived just in time for the 2 imm white ibis to fly over us and disappear into the brush. The best part was when on the paddle back, my daughter, who is somewhat of a reluctant birder, said, "let's do this again tomorrow!" Thanks for the post, Scott. A couple photos of cattle egrets: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dkirschke/3757338479/ --- On Thu, 7/23/09, Scott Somershoe <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx> wrote: From: Scott Somershoe <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx> Subject: [TN-Bird] Middle TN rookery report To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Date: Thursday, July 23, 2009, 8:45 PM On Monday, July 20, my wife and I got a great tour of Woods Reservoir via boat by Jeannie and Dale Swant. We circled Little Elder Isl and watched the birds for a couple hours until sunset. After seeing this site, it is clear that this is one of the most important rookeries in middle Tennessee. Every nesting wader in TN other than yellow-crowned night heron (and anhinga) nest here! Here is my general tally from the day. White Ibis - 2 immature birds Great Blue Heron - ~20 adults and fledglings with a few nests with 1/2 grown young still in the nests (getting late for these guys!) Great Egret - ~30 with some nests having large chicks Green Heron - 2 adults seen flying in Snowy Egret - 1 nest with 2 chicks, one adult seen real briefly Little Blue heron - minimum 3 full adults, at least 3 mottled blue/white birds (one of which fed all white fledglings, captured in picts), and at least 10-15 immature (all white plumaged) birds. Watched some young be fed by adults and watched fledglings chase the adults around and around the island. Thought to be at least 6 little blue heron nests. Black-crowned Night Heron - 3 adults with ~15-20 immature birds Double-crested Cormorants- ~15 hanging out, mostly juv's, but saw 1 adult, no evidence of nesting (thank gosh!) Cattle Egret - ~500-600 flying to roost, many adults, but also appeared to be some older fledglings flying around. A few nests were being incubated or had small young. Between adults and immatures flopping around, there were probably at least 1000 individuals. Impossible to count nests or even track adults vs immatures. We also saw one imm Black-crowned Night Heron that was working on getting down what was a small white bird, probably nestling cattle egret. We all saw the imm night heron with a clump of white feathers sticking out of its mouth. It eventually got them all down. Wonder if it stole a chick from a nest or what!? Thursday, July 23. Visited Drakes Creek on Old Hickory Lake in Sumner Co. We paddled around the standing sticks that used to be the rookery. One red maple is partly alive, but all nesting trees are dead and falling over. About 200 nests remain, most empty as it is late in the year. Cormorants have taken over this rookery and killed everything in only 3 yearswith their caustic waste. The trees were all alive (with some bare spots only) in 2006. Most of the birds that nested here are long gone, but I hadn't had a chance to see the site yet this year. Here is the tally: Great Egret- 2 nests, one with an adult sitting and one with 2 fledglings flying around the area Great Blue Heron- 8 active nests, all with large young (one had half grown young), 16 or so adults seen and 15 immatures. Double-crested Cormorant - Probably 40 active nests still, all with young. Lots of adults coming and going and juv's around. Prob 60 adults, 20 immatures seen. Black-crowned Night Heron - 14 imm birds seen, no adults. There were 2 small dead trees completely packed with small nests and had several fledglings hanging out. Good birding!! Scott Somershoe State Ornithologist Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency P.O. Box 40747 Nashville, TN 37204 615-781-6653 (o) 601-868-0101 (cell) 615-781-6654 (fax) "Keeping the rubber side down." -SGS =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ MAP RESOURCES Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________ =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ MAP RESOURCES Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________