[TN-Bird] West TN; 3/16/06

From: <birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 17:03:54 -0600
3/16/06
Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge to Reelfoot Lake area
Lauderdale, Dyer, & Lake Co.

Don Manning and I made a run around some of the areas close to the 
Mississippi River. All in all, the most noteworthy sighting was the 
near-total lack of wetland habitat. Many of the bar pits are even drying up, 
if we don't get some rain soon, it will be a very tough season for 
shorebirds coming through this area.

Dabbling ducks covered practically all decent-looking spots, including many 
BLUE-WINGED TEAL, my 1st of season (FOS). Interestingly, most concentrations 
were single-species, or near so anyway. Everyone is segregate out, including 
some of the biggest straight flocks of NORTHERN SHOVELERS and AMERICAN 
WIGEON that I remember seeing. On the waterfowl front, we were somewhat 
surprised to see a couple of decent flocks of geese. We had a flock of about 
50 GREATER WHITE-FRONTS which contained a couple of SNOW GEESE (Lake Co.), 
and then a large flock of SNOW GEESE, with a few ROSS'S and WHITE-FRONTS 
resting in a rice field at Black Bayou at Reelfoot Lake. Reelfoot had many 
RUDDY DUCKS and SCAUP, along with a few BUFFLEHEAD, but no surprises. 
Species count for waterfowl on the day was 16.

Shorebirds were the main focus of the day, with GOLDEN-PLOVER being the main 
target. We had our 1st taste of shorebirds at Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge. 
One of the previously flooded fields directly in front of the observation 
area is a little damp now, and hosted a large flock of 200+ PECTORAL 
SANDPIPERS. WILSON'S SNIPE and GREATER YELLOWLEGS were here as well, as they 
were in practically every decent-looking spot. We only had LESSER YELLOWLEGS 
once on the day, 3 birds along Hwy 103, at the Great River Rd intersection 
(Dyer Co.). As was the usual case though, this area was much drier than 
normal. By far the best shorebird spot though, was a leveed field off of 
Parker Rd, just north of the county line, in Lake Co (accessed off the Great 
River Rd.) This area had our 1st AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVERS, 20 of them, as 
well as many SNIPE, along with more PECTORALS and GREATER YELLOWLEGS. 
Unfortunately, it looks like the water could be dropped from this field at 
any time. Our only other GOLDEN-PLOVERS, was a group of 7 calling overhead 
in Lake Co. I had expected to see Least Sandpiper at some point, but didn't 
have any, thus a total on the day of 6 species.

Otherwise, it was pretty quiet. The only swallow besides TREE SWALLOW, was a 
single BARN along the Mississippi, at Tiptonville Bar. The River is really 
rolling now, but we didn't see anything but a couple of Ring-billed Gulls 
floating down it. This was our only gull species on the day. There were at 
most, a dozen flying around at Reelfoot. As Jeff mentioned, FISH CROWS are 
very much in evidence now, and greatly outnumbered AMERICAN in the locations 
we visited.

Lets' hope for some more rain!

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
Carroll Co.
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd



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[TN-Bird] West TN; 3/16/06

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