March, 17th, 2018
Victor and I had 105 species at Pickwick Lake, Savannah Bottoms, and
Coffee Landing Road (All in Hardin County) this forenoon. We weren't trying
for a Big Day at all, but got quite a few unexpected bonus birds early on,
so by noon we decided to add on the Busseltown Unit and Duck River Unit
TNWR and go for as many species as we could.
Highlights from the Pickwick area included a beautiful pair of
LONG-TAILED DUCKS at the dam, nearly in full breeding colors, a State high
count of 10 adult RED-THROATED LOONS at Bruton Branch, a fairly distant
PACIFIC LOON seen up the lake from the dam, a very handsome young light
morph ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK hunting over the weedy owl-fields at Shiloh Shores,
8 species of shorebirds at Coffee Landing Road, including FOS SOLITARY
SANDPIPER (1) LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER(2) and AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER(14)
continuing first cycle GLAUCOUS GULL below the dam with a handful of
Herring Gulls, good numbers of FISH CROWS and BROWN-HEADED NUTHATCHES, FOS
LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSH, and in Savannah Bottoms a very cooperative MERLIN,
many VESPER SPARROWS and a single BREWER'S BLACKBIRD, (flyover,
photographed).
At noon we stopped by the Busseltown Unit TNWR for a few minutes and
added a few dabblers and LECONTE'S SPARROW (8).
At the Duck River Unit we found quite a few of the expected odds and ends
that we had missed in the morning, as well as a nice bunch of shorebirds
along Refuge Road that apparently arrived overnight, including 8 American
Golden Plover, 30 Greater Yellowlegs, 50 Lesser Yellowlegs, 250 Pectoral
and 1 Least Sandpiper, and 2 Long-billed Dowitchers.
On the way home from the refuge after dark we had a calling BARN OWL,
calling immature GREAT HORNED OWL, and AMERICAN WOODCOCK. The Woodcock was
shorebird species #10 and number 126 for the day overall.
We missed the Greater Scaup, Common Goldeneye and Surf Scoter that were
visible from the Pump Station because all we could see was a
heat-shimmering mass of hundreds of diving ducks. 30 minutes of staring
didn't help much. (We did get Ring-necked Duck here, flyover). We also
missed Belted Kingfisher.
Here is a species list;
Snow Goose
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Gadwall
American Wigeon
American Black Duck
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Long-tailed Duck
Bufflehead
Hooded Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Wild Turkey
Red-throated Loon
Pacific Loon
Common Loon
Pied-billed Grebe
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
American White Pelican
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Black-crowned Night-heron
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-shouldered Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
American Coot
American Golden Plover
Killdeer
Solitary Sandpiper
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Least Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Long-billed Dowitcher
Wilson's Snipe
American Woodcock
Bonaparte's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Glaucous Gull
Forster's Tern
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-dove
Mourning Dove
Barn Owl
Great Horned-Owl
Barred Owl
Red-headed woodpecker
Red-bellied woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Pileated woodpecker
American Kestrel
Merlin
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Horned Lark
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Purple Martin
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Cliff Swallow
Carolina Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Winter Wren
Carolina Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Brown Thrasher
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
American Pipit
Cedar Waxwing
Louisiana Waterthrush
Pine Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Eastern Towhee
Chipping Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Leconte's Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Rusty Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
Purple Finch
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
Ruben Stoll, Centerville TN
