[tn-bird] September Big Day
- From: "Desgrosellier, Jay" <jay.desgrosellier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 3 Oct 2002 15:07:23 -0500
Saturday, September 28, 2002
6am-6:30pm
Cheatham Co., Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge Duck River and Big Sandy
Units, Paris Landing State Park and Cross Creeks NWR, TN
283 miles
For our September big day attempt the team of Chris Sloan and myself attempted
a much more local route than on any of our previous big days. We decided to do
a loop which began at Narrows of the Harpeth State Park and various Cheatham
Co. locations, and proceeded to the Duck River Unit of TNNWR, Pace Point, Paris
Landing and finally Cross Creeks NWR.
The day began with a very cooperative EASTERN SCREECH-OWL at Narrows of the
Harpeth State Park. Fog made early morning viewing difficult, but we still
managed to find WHITE-EYED, PHILADELPHIA and RED-EYED VIREO, OVENBIRD,
REDSTART, MAGNOLIA WARBLER, TENNESSEE WARBLER, COMMON YELLOWTHROAT, PARULA,
YELLOW-THROATED WARBLER, GRAY CATBIRD, BROWN THRASHER, BELTED KINGFISHER,
RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD, SUMMER TANAGER, SWAINSON'S THRUSH and our first of
many ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAKS. As the fog lifted we had high hopes that we would
start picking up many more species of warbler, but it just didn't happen. Stops
at other locations in Cheatham Co. didn't make up for our warbler deficiency
and so we took off to the Duck River unit of TNNWR knowing that we were already
in trouble.
Upon arriving at the Duck River unit we were able to add YELLOW-THROATED VIREO,
CHESTNUT-SIDED and NASHVILLE WARBLER, wich helped but didn't cure our ills. The
bottoms were fairly prductive. Birds found here included CATTLE EGRET, SNOWY
EGRET, YELLOW-BILLED CUCKOO, HORNED LARK, SPOTTED SANDPIPER, AMERCAN COOT,
PIED-BILLED GREBE and lots of early ducks. We actually managed to find all of
Tennessee's common dabbling ducks including MALLARD, WOOD DUCK, GREEN-WINGED
and BLUE-WINGED TEAL, NORTHERN SHOVELER, GADWALL, NORTHERN PINTAIL, BLACK DUCK
and AMERICAN WIGEON. Just to drive home how widespread and abundant grosbeaks
were on the day, we found a single grosbeak sitting on a grass stalk out in a
field far from any trees. They were easily the most abundant neotropical
migrants observed on the day.
We were still doing o.k. after hitting the bottoms, but then things really
started going downhill. Despite having good directions, we managed to get lost
on our way to a marsh on the east end of the bottoms. This was supposed to be
our rail spot, so we probably lost a few species due to this mistake. Next we
were off to Pace Point.
After arriving at Pace Point we knew our fate was sealed. The water level was
way up and absolutely no mud or shoreline was exposed anywhere. There wasn't
even a place for all of the gulls to sit, as they were all out on the water.
Isidore had provided us with too much water and we would suffer by not finding
ANY shorebird habitat. In fact, besides Killdeer, the Spotted Sandpiper we
found at Duck River would by our only other shorebird on the day. There was a
nice collection of passerines on the point. We added BLACK AND WHITE WARBLER,
WARBLING VIREO and HOUSE WREN, but they were only a small consolation.
A quick stop at Paris Landing provided us with HERRING GULL, and FORSTER'S and
COMMON TERN then it was off to Cross Creeks. Once again Isidore had gotten the
better of us. All of the shorebird habitat present here just two weeks ago was
completely inundated. All of the pools at Cross Creeks were completely full. We
called it a day at sunset, a rarity for us, and headed home a little early
having been thoroughly defeated by mother nature. We ended with 101 species
with 7 unshared, which will further decrease the official total. But it's our
failures that make our successes that much sweeter so we will look forward to
next time.
Good Birding!
Jay Desgrosellier
Nashville, TN
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