I was at Kyker Bottoms Wildlife Refuge this morning. It was very foggy with
visibility practically nil until well after eight o'clock and clear conditions
not present until past 9:30. There were several flyovers of Canada Geese
early, most of which could not be seen due to the fog. One flyover, however,
was almost directly overhead and consisted of five geese, three of which were
Canada Geese and the other two being either Ross's Geese or Snow Geese. The
visibility was too poor to make a sure decision as to which species they were,
but due to the small size I'm guessing that they were Ross's Geese. Most of
this morning's geese landed on the north side of the Refuge, which is not
clearly visible from the observation deck or road.
Among the 32 species seen there were no other significant local rarities, but
there were seven duck species seen, including four American Black Ducks. At
one point there were 42 tree swallows on the wires over the adjacent pond.
They had been first noted here for this year about two weeks earlier.
After visiting Kyker Bottoms, I traveled to Chilhowee Lake. The most notable
sighting was a common loon. I have been seeing as many as four loons
sporadically here over the last couple of months, all of them being seen from
the boat ramp near where Highway 129 meets the Lake. I usually see bald eagles
somewhere along the Lake, but saw none today. I probably heard one, but did
not feel comfortable enough with it to record it.
A link to this morning's eBird checklist for Kyker Bottoms is here:
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S34703298
Randy WinsteadMaryville, Blount County
