[TN-Bird] TVA PONDS - De ja Vu all over again.....Robco Lake plus Tunica, MS
- From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, missbird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2007 06:55:59 EST
Jan. 6, 2007
TVA Ponds- Ensley Bottoms,
Shelby Co. TN,
Tunica Co. MS
I spent some time with a birder that I had met once before last January at
the TVA Ponds. At that time we had a Peregrine put on a great show for us,
hunting over the ponds. That bird was a small anatum type male and a lifer for
him. Yesterday at TVA, while we were talking, I looked over his shoulder and
spotted another Peregrine streaking in to perch on one of the towers, now only
his second sighting.
This bird sat long enough for a few photos, showing it to be an immature
male tundrius. The extreme stripped head pattern and transitional plumage were
really confusing, plus seeing a band on one leg, made me think for a while it
might have been an escaped falconer's hybrid. We watched as it harassed a
Red-tailed Hawk and then did a long sloping dive on some unlucky critter over
near the pits. Two birders meeting at TVA Lake and 2 Peregrines almost exactly
one year apart; pretty good timing I would say!!!
The Marsh Wren still responds to phishing and just a couple of Yellow-rumps
hang out in the Phragmites.
Scopeing through the ducks at TVA, we came up with the following: 3100
Lesser Scaup, 54 Greater Scaup, 116 Ring-necks (mostly females, must have been
boys night out), 6 Canvasback, 5 Redhead, 1 male Hooded Merg, 3 Mallard, 5
Gadwall, 7 Shovelers, 2 male Green-winged Teal, and 5 hen Buffleheads. Also
present were 6 Pied-billed Grebes, American Coots and 21 DC Cormorants. One
Bonaparte's Gull was mixing in with the constantly turning numbers of
Ring-billed
Gulls.
I photographed 23 Great Egrets, that were fishing in one group at Robco
Lake; that's a high number for me in January in Tennessee. The lighting was
terrible on the lake but there were 54 Canvasback in one pod. Around this time
of
the year, Canvasback numbers grow as indicated by over 200 seen at Arkabutla
Lake that morning in Mississippi. I sorted through thousands upon thousands
of Ring-billed Gulls spread over H---'s Half Acre in Tunica Co, and came away
with just one third year Herring. Lots of raptors, waterfowl and Sandhill
Cranes but I was having a gull attack. I need to get to Pace Point or Pickwick
soon.
Good Birding !!!
Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA
6298 Memphis-Arlington Road
Bartlett, TN 38135
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