I canceled the annual Jeff Wilson memorial “four corners of West TN” trip
last weekend because of bad weather but this weekend we did make an attempt
but got interrupted twice so never did end up finishing it.
On Friday 11th Daniel Redwine and I started with KY Lake at Paris Landing
State Park and checked some of the lake spots down to the Duck River
Overlook in Benton County.
Overall waterfowl numbers were still low (presumably because of the
lingering warm weather) but we had FOS Common Goldeneye and Ross’s Goose.
For shorebirds, Greater Yellowlegs, one each of American Golden Plover and
Black bellied Plover and a handful of Dunlin and Least Sandpipers at the
Big Sandy Mudflats was about all we could find, never did make it to the
Duck River Mudflats where there’s a few Avocets, Dowitchers and Pectoral
Sandpipers still hanging around.
A young RED THROATED LOON at Paris Landing State Park was the first for
the Fall season and the the only rare loon we found on the weekend with
less than a hundred loons on the lake all together. (Alan Troyer did have a
Pacific Loon flyby at the Pump Station, DRU on the 12th)
We ended the day at the overlook on the Benton County side where we could
watch the Grassy Lake roost area of the Duck River Unit and had the usual
along with a very late continuing ANHINGA that came in to the cormorant
roost at dusk. TN has one previous December record from Reelfoot and one
January record from Chattanooga but anhinga is a very rare Winter visitor
in our State.
On Saturday the 12th I had to cancel all day due to unforeseen
circumstances, but I did make it out to Reelfoot on Sunday the 13th.
At Reelfoot Lake, waterfowl numbers were great but viewing conditions
were really bad with a lot of heat distortion that was caused by the cold
air and the warm water. I never was able to really check all the waterfowl
but there were thousands of Scaup and Ruddy Ducks as usual and I found a
single male BLACK SCOTER, flyby early morning on the Obion County side but
later seen on the water out from White’s Landing. Also three LONG TAILED
DUCKS early morning in Lower Blue Basin looked like all hens. This was it
for rare ducks for me but sounded like Alan Troyer photographed a White
winged Scoter at the Pump Station and at least three continuing Black
Scoters at the Duck River Unit where 7 birds, including one male, had first
been seen on the 10th.
Also at White’s Landing around noon I had an EARED GREBE sleeping in the
raft of Ruddy Ducks that woke up long enough for me to confirm the ID but
was still sleeping there when I left.
Good birding,
Ruben Stoll, Pleasantville TN
