[TN-Bird] Rutherford Co., 9 Oct 12 - late birds, early birds, and lots of Sora

From: Scott Somershoe <Scott.Somershoe@xxxxxx>
To: TN-Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2012 02:27:57 +0000
I needed a fix of birding, so I took the day off and birded around Rutherford 
Co.  I came across a lot of goodies and some big surprises.  It ended up being 
a phenomenal day of local birding.

Gateway Ponds in Murfreesboro - overgrown fields/dirt piles
Lincoln's Sparrow - 1
Savannah Sparrow - 14+
White-crowned Sparrow (imm) - 1
Field, Song, and Swamp Sparrow in the same patch, which was subsequently 
ambushed by an immature Cooper's Hawk
"Eastern" Yellow Palm Warbler with 2 Western Palms
Marsh Wren - 1, in tiny patch of cattails (and by tiny, the spot was 5 ft by 1 
ft)
Eastern Meadowlark - 16+ birds flying around, some singing.


Stones River Battlefield
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Blue-headed and White-eyed Vireo - 1 each
House Wren - 5
Orange-crowned Warbler - 1
Hooded Warbler - 1 male.  Late.
Golden-crowned Kinglet - 5 (my first of fall) in a raucous group.
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 2 (my first of fall)
Wood Thrush - 1.  Late
PINE SISKIN - heard two birds fly over chattering and giving the distinct 
rough, rising buzzy call.
Great Horned Owl -1 bird was perched in an oak.  The bird attracted the 
attention of every titmouse and chickadee in the park.


Eagleville area
I saw the 2 Trumpeter Swans from close range.  They were about 60 feet from the 
road in a cornfield (on North Rd where they were previously found and posted).  
They walked closer when I stopped and got out of the car. They were probably 40 
ft from the road and just stood there.  I think if I threw them some corn, 
they'd have come right up to me.


Smyrna - Almaville Rd
I recently realized there is a small (~1-1.5 acre) cattail marsh on Almaville 
Rd not far from I-24.  I have ridden my bike past this spot literally 200 times 
and just noticed the cattails the other day.  Usual sparrows and warblers were 
present, but this area has potential for bitterns and rails when wet.  There 
was shin deep water present today.  It's a relatively small area, but looks 
pretty nice.  There's a fair amount of vehicle traffic nearby and it is noisy, 
but I'll check this spot again.


Percy Priest WMA - Dog Trial area
Most of the weedy/overgrown fields have been mowed, but there was some 
lingering decent habitat.  I didn't have time to walk the fields much as I 
ended up spending most of my time walking every nook and cranny of the "goose 
ponds" because I was finding SORA everywhere.  I ended up with 11 SORA!

These ponds are located on the first gravel road to the left after entering the 
dog trial area (ponds are here: 36.038706,-86.51532).  For local birders, this 
is where the buff-breasted sandpipers were last year.  The ponds have aquatic 
vegetation growing up and are flooded.  I walked all the edges of the ponds (on 
N and S side of the road) and through some of the ponds, and ended up flushing 
5 Sora and hearing 6 others.  Birds were scattered across the ponds and at all 
corners.  Nine birds were on the bigger pond on the N side of the road.  I 
flushed 2 birds from the south pond unit.  I also had one Marsh Wren, plus 
common yellowthroats and oodles of Swamp Sparrows.

NOTE - the field trial area is CLOSED to the public Fri-Sun every weekend from 
Sept through April for dog trials.  No birding or any other type of recreation 
is allowed (not even driving through).

Fantastic day of local birding!

Cheers,
Scott Somershoe


State Ornithologist
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
P.O. Box 40747
Nashville, TN 37204
615-781-6653 (office)
615-781-6654 (fax)
[TN-Bird] Rutherford Co., 9 Oct 12 - late birds, early birds, and lots of Sora

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