[TN-Bird] November Big Day
- From: "Desgrosellier, Jay" <jay.desgrosellier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 10 Nov 2002 18:21:52 -0600
Saturday, November 9, 2002
Duck River and Big Sandy Units of the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge
(Humphrey's and Henry Co., TN)
6am-5pm
162 miles
For our November Big Day Chris Sloan and myself once again limited our search
to the Duck River and Big Sandy units of the Tennessee National Wildlife
Refuge. The day started at 6 am at Duck River and ended at 5 pm at Paris
Landing. Extremely windy and blustery conditions made bird finding very
difficult. Although it was unseasonably warm, the wind made many of the
passerines hunker down and caused large waves which, coupled to low light from
overcast skies, made watefowl viewing next to impossible. Despite these
conditions we persevered and ended up with some nice finds on the day.
Although the passerine birding was slow at Duck River, species such as WINTER
WREN, BROWN CREEPER and GOLDEN-CROWNED and RUBY-CROWNED KINGLETS made a
respectable showing as good numbers were found of each. Watefowl numbers on the
refuge were outstanding. All of the expected dabblers were present, with the
exception of wood duck, and several divers were also found such as LESSER
SCAUP, HOODED MERGANSER, RING-NECKED DUCK and RUDDY DUCK. All of Tennessee's
regular occurring geese species were also found with Chris having the good
fortune of having a representative of each species in view in his scope at the
same time. Only two ROSS' GOOSE were found while multiples of SNOW, CANADA and
WHITE-FRONTED GOOSE were observed. Shorebirds put in a good showing at Duck
River with 4 GREATER YELLOWLEGS being observed and one field held a flock of
nearly 30 WILSON'S SNIPE, a single LEAST SANDPIPER and, the surprise find of
the day, 3 AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER. Another good find here was a single PALM
WARBLER and 3 TREE SWALLOWS played in the wind. GREAT EGRETS were still around
in numbers as about 10 were observed and the fields were full of AMERICAN
PIPITS. Raptors seemed to enjoy the wind as we found NORTHERN HARRIER, BALD
EAGLE, RED-SHOULDERED and RED-TAILED HAWKS, and the first of 3 SHARP-SHINNED
HAWKS on the day.
We left Duck River at about 10 am and headed straight to Pace Point. From the
point we made another nice find for the day, a single adult PACIFIC LOON.
BONAPARTE'S GULL, HORNED GREBE, COMMON LOON and GREATER SCAUP were other
additions made from the point, but horrible lighting and bad wave action made
viewing the large rafts of diving ducks farther out on the lake nearly
impossible. In spite of the wind Pace Point provided a few more passerines with
BROWN THRASHER and WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW being added to the list. Also we found
our only COOPER'S HAWK of the day near the maintenance shed harrassing a small
flock of blackbirds.
From Pace Point it was on to the the mouth of the Big Sandy River. Here we had
some unusually good luck for the day when Chris found a FORSTER'S TERN sit down
in front of a large flock of gulls. When he tried to show me the bird in his
scope the first thing I saw was an adult LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL directly
behind the tern. A nice two-for-one special! However, in contrast to last week
the only other new birds found here were two DUNLIN.
Britton Ford was a complete disappointment. There were very few ducks here
period, never mind Canvasbacks or Redheads which we missed for the day. No
LeConte's sparrows were in yet apparently, though we gave it our best shot and
no longspurs were found using the stubble fields despite reports from earlier
in the week. We fared no better at Paris Landing where we found the island
devoid of birds with no apparent cause in the form of an eagle or falcon.
We ended the day with 94 species and lots of misses. A little better weather
and maybe we would have fared differently. Due to the weather many of the
species observed were represented by single individuals. It was a truly
difficult day to find birds, but an enjoyable one nonetheless.
Good Birding!
Jay Desgrosellier
Nashville, TN
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