[TN-Bird] NW TN yesterday - Little Gull, Peregine Falcon, etc.

From: "Mark Greene" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "greenesnake@xxxxxxxxx" for DMARC)
To: TN-Birds Bird <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 17:20:44 +0000 (UTC)
Wednesday, November 19, 2014Dyer and Lake Counties
I made a few rounds in NW TN yesterday. My first stop was at one of the "borrow 
pits" along the Great River Road, just north of I-155 in Dyer County, where I 
had seen some pretty good shorebird habitat earlier in the fall. The habitat 
looked even better now with a few shallow pools. I had the following here:
Great Blue Heron - 2Killdeer - 12Greater Yellowlegs - 1Least Sandpiper - 
8Long-billed Dowitcher - 2Wilson's Snipe - 3Ring-billed Gull - 7
Along the way north, I stopped at a couple of places and looked at the 
Mississippi River. The river is still pretty low with several sandbars showing 
but I saw nothing but a few Ring-billed Gulls.
On Pigeon Roost Road in northern Lake County I came upon a flooded field that 
was full of ducks. I pulled over, put the scope on the window and did a scan of 
the flock, which numbered 3000+ birds:
Gadwall, American Wigeon, American Black Duck, Mallard, N. Shoveler, and N. 
Pintail were all present along with several Killdeer. 
While scanning from here I noticed a raptor sitting in an open field adjacent 
to the water. Through my binoculars I could see that the bird was a large 
falcon. My first thought was Prairie Falcon but after putting the scope on the 
window again and watching the bird for a few seconds I could see that it was a 
Peregrine Falcon. Not a bad consolation prize! I watched the bird preen on the 
ground for several minutes then it got up and made a couple of half-hearted 
passes at the waterfowl - just for fun I'm sure! The ducks however, failed to 
see the humor and were diving, dodging, and in a general state of chaos each 
time the Peregrine made a pass! After a couple of minutes it flew across and 
perched on an irrigation rig on the south side of the road. A quick note here - 
the Prairie Falcon that I had last winter in Obion County was also perched on 
an irrigation rig so its worth checking these out. They are all over West 
Tennessee now and I frequently see them being used as perches by Red-tailed 
Hawks, American Kestrels, etc. especially in the winter.
Along the Phillipy Road, there was another field being flooded (to use as a 
duck hunting field I'm sure) and this field held a different mix of ducks that 
the field noted above just to the north. Here I found a flock of about 500 
ducks of the following species:
Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallard, N. Shoveler, N. Pintail, Green-winged Teal, 
and Ring-necked Duck. An adult Bald Eagle sat in a tree here keeping watch and 
a flock of about 50 Snow Geese that came over, calling, contained a lone Ross's 
Goose. I also heard a few Greater White-fronted Geese but I never located them. 
On the south side of the road here in the Phillipy Unit of the Black Bayou 
Refuge, there is some good looking habitat for LeConte's Sparrows but with the 
wind howling yesterday I decided that another day would probably be better for 
that!
I had only a few Horned Larks yesterday and no Lapland Longspurs but the wind 
was keeping most small birds grounded so the fact I didn't see them doesn't 
mean that they are not around. I did have a small flock of 8 American Pipits 
with some Killdeer at the Phillipy Pits.
I scanned Reelfoot Lake from Champey Pocket, Keystone Pocket, White's Landing 
and Campbell's Point and added several diving ducks to my waterfowl list for 
the day:
Canvasback (12), Redhead (3), Lesser Scaup, Greater Scaup, Bufflehead, Hooded 
Merganser, Red-breated Merganser (2), and Ruddy Duck. I also added Pied-billed 
Grebe, Horned Grebe, and Double-crested Cormorant.
There were several Ring-billed Gulls and Bonaparte's Gulls around and I saw a 
lone Herring Gull, an adult bird. I scanned the Bonaparte's Gull flock on Lower 
Blue Basin in the lat afternoon and sure enough, in the mix, was a first winter 
Little Gull! This had become a nearly regular bird here at Reelfoot during the 
cold weather months. Hopefully it sticks around for the Christmas Count in a 
few weeks!
A couple of negative notes on some traditional hotspots - the Aristidae grass 
field where we've had Smith's Longspurs in the past has been recently cut and 
there were several large, round bales of hay sitting all over the field. The 
"spoils area" impoundment adjacent to Jolly Landing where there is always a 
great assortment of hawks (including a couple of Ferruginous Hawks in recent 
years) had planted in soybeans this year and there is no habitat there at all. 
I was more than a little bummed where I saw that.
Overall though it was a great day to be out and about.
Good birding!
Mark GreeneTrenton, TNGibson County
[TN-Bird] NW TN yesterday - Little Gull, Peregine Falcon, etc.

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