July 16th, 2019
Victor and I didn’t have great expectations for the day since we had
spent all day yesterday in Lake County without finding anything
unexpected. We almost went to work today but cancelled that when Daniel
Redwine and Andrew Lydeard found the Great Shearwater at KY Dam late last
night.
We decided to try our luck with Pickwick, which turned out to be the
right decision and perhaps the best single day of birding that I can
remember.
At first light this morning we had a MAGNIFICENT FRIGATEBIRD (State bird
for me) circling around Bruton Branch, and soon after a ROYAL TERN (State
bird) and then a first State record SANDWICH TERN passing headed South.
Looking down towards the Dam we could see a large heavy tern with a black
back and white underside flying around and then dropping down out of sight
which we figured had to be a BLACK SKIMMER. (And this was later confirmed
by Mark Greene at the Dam.
We ended up spending the entire day at the one spot at Bruton Branch with
our friends trickling in throughout the day. By 4:30 p.m. we had quite a
great crowd there, and the Magnificent Frigatebird and one Sandwich Tern
were still hanging around when we left. (We ended up seeing at least three,
probably four Sandwich Terns).
Also present in the area were a HERRING GULL, a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL,
two adult LAUGHING GULLS, and several each Ring-billed Gulls and Forster’s
and Caspian Terns.
Good birding, Ruben Stoll, Centerville Tennessee
