May 4-5, 2002 Lauderdale, Dyer, Lake and Obion Co. Where do you start to describe an almost perfect series of events that fall exactly into place and end up providing you a most memorable birding experience? You receive a new pair of field glasses the day before, ones that you have researched and tested against many brands to come to the right decision for you. You watch the images on Nexrad Thursday night and Friday morning and these lend hope as a wave of birds, unmistakable in design and pattern advance across the gulf toward you; racing diagonally across Louisiana, racing with the wind on a collision course with a front coming from the northwest. Racing to get as far north on what fat and will held in reserve for just such a sprint. You get to leave early from work as your duties are checked off (or put off) for an upcoming weekend of birding around Reelfoot. The rain stops just as you reach the cross roads at Halls, TN and you make a quick decision to take a left and check out an area that produces surprises and this time the place out does itself. You hurry north to the TOS meeting in Dyersburg to see friends from across the state and persuade two to go south, on a hunch, rather than north to the famously productive Walnut Log Road that beckons seductively with memories of spring mornings past. Saturday morning after the sun lightened the cloudy sky and then hints of sunlight came lilting through the tree tops, we realized there are birds singing, feeding and chasing everywhere. It all falls together and the three of us were in warbler Heaven with many other species thrown in for good measure. Memories are to be made in the coming hours and we sensed it right away. We made only 7 stops along the bluff and what stops they were. Time and again an announced new species would send us to scurry to the finder to search for treasure among the leaves. Time and again we were treated to awesome looks at colorful jewels and unbelievable combinations of birds. Five Chestnut-sided feeding together, 6 Yellow-billed Cuckoos at another time, 2 Philadelphia Vireos on one limb, brilliant Cape Mays in the tops of Cypress Trees, retina burning Blackburnian, bright spots of yellow in deep recesses in the woods revealed Hooded, Kentucky and Prothonotary Warblers, a Cerulean singing in full view as we got out of the car at an almost never failing site. A Louisiana Waterthrush threw us off by singing inside a long metal culvert under the road and throwing its voice out the other end 30 feet away. After locating the bird it then escaped us by flying through the culvert and perched on a log in the creek to show off. The last bit of luck came very late in the day when we are running full speed to make it to the banquet in Dyersburg some 30 miles to the south and then decided to stop at a location where we have never had a particular species of warbler but always hoped. It is the only string of pines between us and the dinner program and lo and behold we get two Pine Warblers chasing and calling. Sometimes it just doesn't get any better and best of all we got to participate. We ended the day with a smacking 32 species of warblers, which is pretty neat but the best aspect of the day was the shear numbers of each species seen and the superb looks that we were rewarded. My new glasses performed in the field with rich color and instant focus on bird after bird, species upon species. The evening before along Key Corner Road at the base of the loess soil bluffs, I had had a stunning look at a Lawrence's Warbler which we did not find Saturday but we did locate no less than 7 Golden-winged and we had multiples of all but 4 of the 32 species. A tree with 15 to 20 warblers feeding in and out was the norm for the morning. Our missed species were ones that we had only remote chances of seeing such as, Prairie which is almost impossible to find in the delta but easy just 50 miles east, Mourning which does not show up every year here along with Connecticut which reveals itself only occasionally on Walnut Log Road, and Orange-crowned which is a tough one when you have to have it any time. By late afternoon most of the big numbers had moved on. We would spend an hour in one location and then go to our next stop for another parade. Warblers perched at eye level, bathed in wet leaves, chased one another from tree top to tree top, sang short songs and full songs, gave chips and chirps or sat very still and were fodder for our eyes; we feasted, never too full to rush to see another and yet another. At the end of the day, without visiting any of the regular shorebird haunts, we totaled 151 species with many surprises, like a single Sandhill Crane that flew across a distant field and finally called back to us as it went out of sight, an American Bittern that froze in place as we took photos, a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron that let us drive right up to it for another photo shoot, a Peregrine Falcon that awed us with speed and grace, a Black-billed Cuckoo that called from the same location on Saturday and Sunday (maybe another nesting event). Looking directly into the deep dark, squinted eyes of a roosting Barred Owl or listening to a Screech Owl calling from deep within a hollow tree are always good for a few minutes of quite transfixed enjoyment that bring irrepressible smiles across your face. You just look at each other and share the moment in silence We got all the woodpeckers with the one holdout being Sapsucker and the cool morning did nothing for the flycatcher numbers but we did see Peewee, Phoebe, 3 or 4 Least Flycatchers and saw and heard many Acadian. The others will be here next week in numbers. An Eurasian Collared-Dove sat on top of a telephone pole next to its nesting tree as we hurried past in Ridgley. We had the 6 expected vireos with multiple Philadelphia feeding in Sycamore trees. We saw all the swallows and Purple Martins foraging over various backwater pools. A Red-breasted Nuthatch piped up at Champy's Pocket while we viewed Bonaparte's, Ring-billed and an immature Herring Gull with Caspian, Forster's and Black Terns thrown in for good measure. The Least Tern arrival has been delay by a rising Mississippi River. All the thrushes put in stunning appearances, two or three species could be heard singing at more than one stop at the deep, sand bottom creek beds that wander back into the bluff along Key Corner Road. The up close Veery, seemly made its own light as it posed at Moss Island, was another show stopper. Grasshopper Sparrows teed up singing and let us take a few photos; Lincoln's Sparrows in their new dapper tweed suits let us view them as they chased through the grasses and brambles in hormone induced pursuits that will come to sexual reality soon but much further north. By late afternoon Saturday, we knew the best had past as the numbers grew thinner and thinner in the tree tops. They had moved through leaving a few in need of more rest and food for Sunday viewing. We had a quieter time then but still enough birds to let us down gently from the Saturday high and time for me to visit with my beloved "Wind birds." I added another 29 species on Sunday to round out my weekend total to an even 180 species; a total that would be good even on the coast. Most of all we were left with many stories to tell and times to remember. Sunday evening was spent at White Lake surrounded by "wind birds" talking about the night's travel, planning where to stop next. I was greeted by a Golden-plover, 5 breeding plumaged female Wilson's Phalarope, Western and Semipalmated Sandpiper rounding out a total of 17 species of shorebirds plus an adult and second year Black-crowned Night-Heron sitting on the board walk. A male Ring-necked Duck was the last surprise of the weekend. I started the long drive home at dark with miles of memories to mull. A brief but good look at a Black-throated Blue Warbler (only my 3rd for west TN) on the Hacking Road Sunday that called once, leaving us running and searching, brought the weekend warbler total to 33 species, which rolls off the tongue quite nicely.............Thanks to Mark Greene, Mike Todd, Hap Chambers, Roseanne Denton, the Leggett's and Gary Casey for sharing. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL' COOT / TLBA Bartlett Tenn. =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================