[TN-Bird] Reelfoot Lake (nw TN) trip

From: "Trently, David J" <dtrently@xxxxxxx>
To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:41:29 -0400
northwest Tennessee, Lake & Obion Counties
 
From August 6-9, I led a birding trip to west Tennessee, primarily the
Reelfoot Lake area, with the help of my brother Allan. As always, the
Reelfoot area provided some avian surprises, as well as some hot
temperatures and high humidity! Here are some of the more notable
results:
 
*  Swallows! Thousands of swallows were evident pretty much everywhere
we went. Power lines along the Mississippi River were often full of
them, mostly Bank and N Rough-winged Swallows. Amazingly, we only
managed to find a single adult Tree Swallow, and maybe one immature
bird. A decent number of Purple Martins and Barn Swallows was also mixed
in, with a few Cliff Swallows scattered about.
 
* Lack of shorebirds. A big reason for making this trip this time of
year was to see shorebirds. Plenty of rain in the area had left a lot of
the potential habitat filled with water, with little mudflat available.
Even so, there were places that looked ideal for sandpipers, but we only
found about 5 small sites with a few birds, only one of which had more
than 3 species. After Killdeer, Spotted Sandpipers were probably the
most common. One pond in Kentucky (N 36.55423 W 89.33777) had the best
to offer, including our only Black-necked Stilts, Lesser Yellowlegs,
Pectoral & Semipalmated Sandpipers.
 
* ANHINGA
We first saw an Anhinga on Friday (Aug 7) in the area of Phillipy in
Lake County. On Saturday, at least one was seen flying over the lake
(Obion County) from Blue Basin Cove Bed & Breakfast
(http://blbweb.bluebasin.com/)
 
* LARK SPARROW
A single bird was seen on the road at Black Bayou. Location was just
before you reach the forested area (on the left) after turning off route
213.
 
* OLIVE-SIDED FLYCATCHER
A single bird was seen while driving on the levee in Kentucky, near Lake
9.
 
Notable for east Tennessee birders were the following:
Mississippi Kites and Dickcissels in many places.
immature Pied-billed Grebes (complete with the striped neck pattern), an
immature Hooded Merganser (with yellow on the bill) and Warbling Vireos
at Black Bayou.
American White Pelicans on Lake 9 (Fulton County, Kentucky)
Horned Larks fairly common along many of the farm roads.
Loggerhead Shrikes were fairly common as well, seen in several places.
We heard a good number of Least Bitterns in the cutgrass on the Lake,
but even going out on Nancy Moore's pontoon boat, and getting pretty
close to them did not bring one into view. We did get brief looks at our
only Marsh Wren while on the boat at least.
 
Finally...there were not a lot of herons around, and we heard no rails
at all. Yellow-billed Cuckoos were seen or heard at practically every
stop. An immature Grasshopper Sparrow (with adults singing in the
background) was seen at Long Point (Fulton County, KY) on the north side
of Reelfoot Lake. A male Barn Swallow was seen in a barn off highway 78.
 
One bird I missed and had hoped for was Western Kingbird. maybe next
year....
 
David Trently 
Avian Pursuits Nature Tours 
...come see the real world!
Knoxville, TN 
http://avianpursuits.com/ <http://avianpursuits.com/> 
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen.  The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
      To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
                    tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________ 
                To unsubscribe, send email to:
                 tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
            with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
  TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 
       Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
        endorse the views or opinions expressed
        by the members of this discussion group.
 
         Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
                 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                ------------------------------
                Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
                         Cleveland, OH
                -------------------------------
               Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
                          Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
         
          Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
              web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                          ARCHIVES
 TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/

                       MAP RESOURCES
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com

_____________________________________________________________
[TN-Bird] Reelfoot Lake (nw TN) trip

Other related posts:
