[TN-Bird] Prairie Falcon & more goodies in Obion Co. (long)!

From: Mark Greene <greenesnake@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 15:05:27 -0800 (PST)
Friday, December 20, 2013
Obion County

The first bird I heard when I stepped out of my house this morning was a Fish 
Crow so maybe that was a sign of a good day of birds that was to come!

As Mike Todd stated in his post earlier we had the Say's Phoebe that I lucked 
upon yesterday on S. Hall Griffin Rd. Ruben Stoll and his friends had already 
found the bird before I arrived at 9:30. Mike arrived a few minutes later and 
we had the bird off and on for the next several minutes as it actively moved 
around the farm.

A few minutes after Ruben and friends and Mike had left, I got a call from Mike 
saying Ruben had a brief glimpse at a Spotted Towhee on Pruitt Road, a short 
drive away. I drove over there and we looked for the birds for several minutes 
but the feeding flock had moved on. They all left and I stayed in the area for 
the next hour or so. I heard some activity further down the road and drove a 
little further down and located the flock - lots of White-throated Sparrows 
plus chickadees, titmice, both kinglets, and several Eastern Towhees. After 
sitting and scanning the flock for several minutes I heard the call of the 
Spotted Towhee. Eventually I was able to get a couple of good albeit very brief 
looks at a male Spotted Towhee! This was my third TN record for this western 
species.

After grabbing a quick bite of lunch I returned to the area east of Union City 
near the Everett Stewart Airport. I drove down Autman Road along the backside 
of the airport and immediately had a Loggerhead Shrike sitting on the barbed 
wire fence. A quick scan yielded 5-6 Red-tailed Hawks and several Northern 
Harriers in the area as well. While driving east down the road I saw a dark 
raptor sitting on the ground out in the field. I put the scope on the bird and 
saw a young dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk. A loud four wheeler came down the 
road and the bird took flight and flew out of sight behind the treeline to the 
west. The best was yet to come...

I was driving south down River Road and as I approached the jct. with Stovall 
Road and Central High Road N. I saw a huge flock of blackbirds feeding. As I 
came to a stop, a raptor dropped off of a nearby irrigation system and flew 
after a flock of Lapland Longspurs. I quickly got on the bird with my 
binoculars and noted a crow-sized, pale sandy brown falcon with long pointed 
wings flying rapidly, low to the ground, across the corn stubble field.Prairie 
Falcon! It flew up and and a couple of quick turns and I could see the dark 
axillaries and underwing coverts. I also could clearly see the falcon 
"moustache" mark on the face. The bird made a couple of rapid passes at the 
flcok of Laps and then flew towards the blackbird flock - thousands of 
blackbirds flew into a frenzy! The bird then quickly flew staright away from me 
and disappeared behind the treeline to the southeast. I searched the area for 
the next hour or so and never saw the falcon again but there
 is so much great habitat and food for raptors around that it could easily stay 
around for a while. I did find a 2nd Rough-legged Hawk for the day - a 
light-morph bird perched in a tree on Central High Road N! There are multitudes 
of Red-tailed Hawks in the entire general area. There are good numbers of 
Lapland Longspurs (500+) and American Pipits (50+) in the area along with the 
blackbirds and Horned Larks.

On my way home, I made a swing through Garrett Sawmill Road. I saw several 
Northern Harriers sitting on the ground. While stopping to look at a distance 
harrier on the ground, 2 Short-eared Owls flew up out of a nearby ditch and 
landed on the ground out in the soybean stubble! A great end to a great day of 
birding!

Good birding,

Mark Greene
Trenton, TN
Gibson County
[TN-Bird] Prairie Falcon & more goodies in Obion Co. (long)!

Other related posts:
