[TN-Bird] south Blount, Monroe Counties

From: Charlie <cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx>
To: TN-Bird <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 04:21:23 -0800 (PST)
Hi folks,

On Wednesday, November 10, Jean Alexander and I went out for the
afternoon to Tellico Lake WMA, Mcghee-Carson Unit in Monroe County,
and Kyker Bottoms in Blount County.  As it was an afternoon trip, and
we had my 6 month old son along, this was more of a chance to get
outside before the predicted bad weather than it was an all-out
birding trip.  But we still did pretty well with first of season
birds.

On the way to Tellico Lake WMA we saw 3 birds we believe were Horned
Grebes (saw them as we were driving down the road.)  A pair of
Ring-necked Ducks were on the small pond across the highway from the
WMA.  At the WMA we saw about 6 Common Loons.  

At a large, recently cut field on the right, as you walk down the
road, we found a number of sparrows, mostly Song and White-throated. 
On an earlier trip Jean told me that she and David Johnson had a
large number of Field Sparrows.  I believe it because this was good
sparrow activity for 2:30 pm.  This field has some bare spots, which
to me just scream out for Vesper Sparrows, though we could not locate
any.  Someone needs to visit this spot in the morning.

Walking back past the foundation of an old dairy, we saw some very
large flocks of American Robins - at least a couple hundred.  There
were also at least 70 Cedar Waxwings.  Hard to count as they were
constantly moving, but there could have been a couple hundred of
these guys, too.  They were joined by at least 35 Eastern Bluebirds,
75 American Goldfinches, a handful of European Starlings (nice to see
these outnumbered by native birds!) and a couple dozen Northern
Cardinals.  While none of these are notable species, it was great to
see such numbers of active birds all around us in a very nice site,
in beautiful weather.

Other species included a Hermit Thrush, a handful of Golden-crowned
Kinglets, perhaps a dozen Yellow-rumped Warblers, one Eastern Towhee
and at least one Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

We had only a short time at Kyker, but at the entrance with the blind
and observation tower we located about 6 White-crowned Sparrows,
among the groups of Field, Song and White-throated.  A couple
Killdeer at the pond across the street were our only shorebirds for
the day.

Driving around to the barn parking lot, we were delighted to see a
male American Kestrel and a Loggerhead Shrike within 30 yards of each
other.

The water level is coming up, and with it are the duck numbers. 
There were probably about 50 Mallards and 30 Ring-necked Ducks, 2-3
Green-winged Teal, one Pied-billed Grebe and one bird I just glimpsed
that was likely a Northern Shoveller, but I couldn't be absolutely
sure.

Charlie



=====
**************************************************
Charlie Muise, Naturalist near
Great Smoky Mountains National Park

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of cancer."  -Edward Abbey
**************************************************


                
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[TN-Bird] south Blount, Monroe Counties

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