[TN-Bird] Percy Priest Lake- 3 Loon species, Yellow Warbler
- From: Scott Somershoe <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx>
- To: TN-Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 2 Jan 2014 03:40:41 +0000
The Hickory-Priest CBC was today and I was with a group that worked the hot
spots around Percy Priest Lake in Davidson Co. Plenty of goodies of note:
Hamilton Creek Rec Area - 4 quick stops for owling resulted in 6 Eastern
Screech Owls and a now second year Great Horned Owl calling (which is really
screeching and eerie).
Anderson Rd Rec Area - before 7 am from the Merlin roost area on the walking
loop I had a PACIFIC LOON, Peregrine Falcon cruising about a foot off the
water, and a Merlin zipped overhead. For 30 min, I heard a bird chipping that
I didn't recognize and could never find. I left to meet the group (and get
more coffee), returned, and heard the same chipping. Eventually we were
working to find the mystery chipping bird and after what was about an hour
after I first heard the bird, we saw a YELLOW WARBLER. It stayed at the top of
the cedars, moving continuously and mostly staying out of sight, but it gave
brief looks to most of the group. There's one previous winter record of Yellow
Warbler in TN.
Two Sandhill Cranes flying over I-40 near Priest Dam was a good find for the
CBC.
Seven Points Rec Area - About 350 Horned Grebe was a great count.
Cook Rec Area to end the day - Only about 125 Common Loons and not a lot of
ducks overall, but good numbers of Hooded Merganers, one female Red-breasted
Merg, and 15 Common Goldeneye were nice. A huge cap to a great day was TWO
RED-THROATED LOONS. I'd scanned the lake about 6 times and was doing one final
scan as the sun set and had both birds together just south of the peninsula of
Cook Rec Area. One adult and one immature plumage birds.
Great way to start 2014!
Great Birding!
Scott Somershoe
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