BIRDFOLK

With all the newly arriving migrants, it's been a busy two weeks since I last sent out a message, and no real way to catch up properly without an unduly long message seems possible, so if this message is not sufficient fodder for your birding info needs, take a look at the various pages of my website with links at the end.

Dave Roemer visited Barren River Reservoir, Barren Co., KY, Apr. 3 and found 200 Bonaparte's Gulls on the reservoir, no doubt part of the population that stages--i.e., stays a few days or a week during migration before continuing north--on the big lakes of our Region before proceeding north to the next staging site (perhaps on the Ohio River?). A group of 400 Bonies in Clinton Co., KY, Apr. 5 (SJS) was probably engaging in the same activity, as were 59 found at the Hurricane Bridge on Center Hill Lake, DeKalb Co., TN, also Apr. 5 (Michael Hawkins). A lone Bonaparte's found in Bledsoe Co., TN, Apr. 5 (Ed LeGrand) for a first county record may have been an offshoot of this natural phenomenon.

The banded female Rufous Hummingbird that stayed the past winter in Van Buren Co., TN, was still present as of today; each day that it lingers it sets a new late spring departure date for the Region. Many thanks to Bill and Jacquie Wagner for being such fine hosts to this bird and for keeping us all posted about its status.

A Cattle Egret tied the early spring arrival date for the Region when it appeared briefly at Black Oak Pond in White Co., TN, Apr. 11 (Carol Eagle, Don Eagle, Hope High, and SJS). There are now 32 records of this egret in the Region. Regional breeding seems like it is almost a certainty to have occurred in the past, but so far no evidence, other than some breeding-plumaged adults found during May and June, has been forthcoming in support of this supposition.

A Black-crowned Night-Heron showed up, also briefly, at Cane Creek Park, Putnam Co., TN, Apr. 9 (SJS et al.), tying the early spring arrival date for the county and probably for the Region. This heron is another that almost certainly breeds in the Region, but so far the evidence to support this contention is limited to the presence in late summer of juveniles that may or may not have been hatched in the Region. Let's find a rookery of this species, and the preceding one, this year!

Ed LeGrand and I found 15 species of warblers yesterday while trying to assuage our need for early arriving migrants, including the season's first Cerulean Warbler, found in Edgar Evins State Resort Park, DeKalb Co., TN. Send along your FOS (and LOS) records as you make them so that the picture of Regional arrival and departure for each species is as complete as possible.

The first Grasshopper Sparrow of the spring was found by Judy Fuson on County House Rd., DeKalb Co., TN, yesterday; the first for-sure Indigo Buntings were found in DeKalb Co., TN (Carol Williams), and Pulaski Co., KY (Connie Neeley), also yesterday; if earlier reports in Mar. were valid records, my apologies to the persons who reported them, but the circumstances of these sightings dictated that some caution be exercised about them. Bill and Jacquie Wagner, after having found the Region's first Ruby-throated Hummingbird in Van Buren Co., TN, Mar. 30, can now lay claim to the first Rose-breasted Grosbeak of the season, a male at their feeders this morning.

Accessing a wetland that has not been previously explored for birdlife is now a fairly rare event in the Region, so I am more than a little happy to report the results of an expedition into Duck Pond, a shallow pond with extensive marshy and swampy edges, in White Co., TN. Doug Downs obtained permission from the landowner to access this site during his recovery from surgery during the past seven weeks, and he was generous enough to invite me along to see what might be seen during this first-ever ornithological exploration of the site. In the past Doug and I have often remarked on the seeming suitability of this site for wetland birds as we have driven past it, but it was always off-limits because privately controlled. But no more. Doug and I met this past Saturday afternoon at 1600 CDT, found a good parking area for our vehicles, donned waders, and set off for the pond, arriving at water's edge in just a few minutes. For a short while we recorded the usual species found around the wooded swamps and marshes of the Region, including Canada Goose, Mallard, Wood Duck, and many Red-winged Blackbirds, but then we flushed an American Bittern and knew that we had found a site that was going to repay out wading efforts many times over in the future. Although we did not turn up anything else of a birdy note during this first visit to Duck Pond, we were more than happy with the bittern, 5th ever for White County and 20th for the Region. With a little prompting Doug can probably be prevailed upon to make future visits to this site with anyone who is willing to wade in knee-deep water for a couple of hours.

Roseanna Denton found a Ross's Goose in northern Pulaski Co., KY, Mar. 25; it was still present Mar. 28, providing one of very few records of this scarce goose in the Region. Doug Downs visited Randolph Pond in northern White Co., TN, Mar. 25 and found a blue morph Snow Goose at the site. Perhaps there was a goose movement on that date?

First-of-season reports for a number of species took place over the week-end; be sure to check out the page of my website that deals with these sightings. I hope many of you will continue to report your early and late dates for migrant birds in the Region and that many more will join those who do submit such reports. As most of you know, it is from such data that much of the evidence for global warming has derived in the past. Reports of birds arriving ever earlier at their breeding sites, part of the science of phenology, are one among many important sources of data that make a more than strong case for an ever-warming planet. See the link provided below to access the Regional early/late data for this spring.

Jacquie Wagner in Van Buren Co., TN, has hosted a female Rufous Hummingbird all winter; it was still being seen yesterday and may stay long enough to break the late spring date (April 8) for this species in our Region. Jacquie also reported a Ruby-throated Hummingbird at her feeders yesterday. Anyone else getting these little jewels at feeders?

Peenters galore; that's what Roseanna and Julie Denton experienced at the Ano strip mines of Pulaski Co., KY, Mar. 14 when they counted 35 courting American Woodcocks, one of the highest Regional totals ever accumulated, but one that Roseanna believes was lower than it might have been because the woodcocks stopped peenting before she and Julie could cover the entire area at the strip mines. Please send along those timberdoodle reports even if they don't involve as many as the Dentons counted, and many thanks to those among you who have already submitted your sightings of woodcocks lately.

Another nice bird that Roseanna found and photographed recently was an adult alternate-plumaged Laughing Gull at the Waitsboro Recreation Area, Lake Cumberland, Pulaski Co., KY, where it was present Mar. 21 for a brief time. This record, the 2nd for Pulaski County and the 6th Regionally, was also the first during spring in the Region.

In the aftermath of the unsettled weather that came through the Region last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, I had to cancel the Cane Creek Park birdwalk, but I went out to the park Wed. afternoon and found a Snowy Egret there, just the 6th for Putnam County, 5th during spring, and earliest during spring in the county, as well as in the Region. Three days later a Great Egret showed up in Jackson Co., TN, so the egrets are on the move, seemingly early this year.

Activity at Regional Great Blue Heron rookeries has been intense during the last week or two; there are still many birds adding to their nests and even a few pairs just getting a late start on building their nests though many are now clearly incubating eggs. Please check any rookeries near you as often as you can until the leaves come out--and after that if you can still gain a clear view of the nests.

Nancy Layzer checked the Jackson County Osprey nests on St. Patrick's Day (Mar. 17) and found adults at three of the four sites where they have nested in the past.

As always seems to happen in late March (and often throughout April), numbers of Purple Finches at feeding stations are increasing as finches arriving from the south swell the numbers of the locally wintering population. Barb Stedman counted 7 Purples at our feeders yesterday, the highest total for the entire winter, and a few other Regional birders have also noted this annual and quite predictable expansion of PUFI numbers at their feeders in late March. Barb and I have not seen our lone Pine Siskin lately; anyone else getting any of these little streaked fellows?

The first Louisiana Waterthrushes of the spring Regionally were found yesterday by Roseanna Denton at a site I have not visited--76 Falls on Lake Cumberland in Clinton Co., KY. On Friday I visited the Merle Osborn Nature Preserve in Putnam Co., TN, hearing and then seeing my first Blue-headed Vireo of the season. More and more arrivals from the south can be expected to occur as the season progresses, so please keep me posted on what you are seeing, and in turn I will keep those to whom I sent these messages privy to what is being seen.

Many thanks to Bettie Doyle for sending along a page taken from the Overton County (TN) News for March 5, 2008, on which there was an article describing a large flock of Snow Geese in neighboring Pickett Co., TN. I emailed Pickett County's veteran birder, Robbie Hassler, who was able to contact the folks who reported the geese to the newspaper's correspondent, Emily Sells, who had gone out to see the geese and to photograph some of them before writing her article. Turns out that at least 35 Snow Geese were sighted in the Keisling Bottom area of Pickett County Mar. 2 (and probably on some other dates, but not yet sure which, if any); this is quite a large flock of Snow Geese, though not a record number, for the Upper Cumberland Region. Thanks again to Bettie and to Robbie, Emily (and her husband), and Ray and Bea Taylor who first saw and reported these birds. Amazing what's out there and how it sometimes gets reported.

As reported earlier today in a UCR Bird Alert, Walt Fields observed a migrant Whooping Crane with some migrant Sandhill Cranes in Cumberland Co., TN, Mar. 12. There are probably still members of the eastern population of Whooping Crane to the south of us, so keep alert for their passage, often with Sandhills, for the next month or so.

Connie Neeley reported an American Tree Sparrow at her home near Mark, Pulaski Co., KY, Mar. 9, as reported in another UCR Bird Alert recently; two days later Roseanna Denton found another ATSP at the Pulaski County Park, the first record for that site, and it was in the appropriate habitat, a "weedy, [dried up] lake bed." Roseanna's tree sparrow was just one day short of tying the Regional late spring departure date for that species. I'll bet there are still a few more of these fine little sparrows hanging around the Region somewhere, so keep alert for them, especially in weedy, low-lying areas, and be the one to set a new late spring date for this species.

I've heard no additional word about a report of a White-winged Scoter at Lake Holiday in Cumberland Co., TN, Mar. 2, but the observer (Damien Simbeck) is extremely competent, so I have no hesitation in accepting his record, which is the first of its kind for that county. I'll be talking about this bird record and other birds of Cumberland County, TN, this coming Monday at 3:00 P.M. at Common Ground in Crossville.

Jacquie Wagner reported Mar. 11 that the female Rufous Hummingbird that has wintered at her home the last two (actually, probably three) winters was still there on that date, the latest it has stayed into spring during the two (or three) years when it has been present; let's hope this hummer will remain past the current Regional late date for RUHU--April 8. If this spring continues to shape up as a late one, that record could well be broken.

Two new species were added to the bird list at Frozen Head State Natural Area recently, when Michael Hodge found both American Pipit and Rusty Blackbird in the park March 8; the blackbird was also a new species for the Morgan Co., TN, bird list. Yesterday Michael also added Wilson's Snipe to the Morgan County bird list. A little field work in many of the Region's counties can yield the same kind of results, so have a look at the bird list for your own and neighboring counties and see if you can't increase the list some this spring.

News of active Great Blue Heron rookeries continues to pour in; please keep checking these sites throughout the nesting cycle, which ends in late July, usually. If anyone has counted the number of nests in the little GTBH rookery that is along I-40 near mile marker 266 or so at one of the places where I-40 crosses the Caney Fork River, please send data on the number of nests there.

The return of the Regional Osprey population to known nesting sites got underway Wednesday when Nancy Layzer checked the four sites in Jackson Co., TN, where Ospreys have nested in recent years and found an adult on one of the nests. Any sign of a returning Osprey to the one known nesting site in Smith Co., TN? Any new nests being occupied in any other Regional counties this year?

While checking Great Blue Heron rookeries Wed., I lucked onto an active Bald Eagle nest in Jackson Co., TN, at a site where there was once a nest during the 1980s, for those whose birding memory in the Region goes back that far. A while back Dave Roemer reported an active eagle nest in the Barren River Reservoir area, KY. Anyone else know of additional active eagle nests in or near the Region? I will refrain from giving locations for these in any online resources I am connected with, but it will be important for the history of eagle breeding in the Region to know at least the county where nests are located during each breeding season. To date, the ability of any one person to be able to offer such a history is severely limited by the general secrecy that prevails about the nests of this species. Such secrecy is certainly needed to safeguard the nesting eagles, but providing just the name of the county where nests are active to ornithological historians would not seem to lessen the safety of the eagles much or at all.

Pine Warblers do not seem to have returned to the Region in numbers yet to judge from the paltry data I have so far collected this spring. A singing Pine was present Feb. 16 at the Cookeville Golf Course, Putnam Co., TN, during the GBBC (SJS), but no other Pines were found in any of the other counties where GBBC data were collected; another singer was noted at Dry Creek Meadows in northern Putnam Co., TN, 22 Feb. (Ginger Ensor); Linda Craiger reported a nonsinging male Pine at her feeders in Glasgow, Barren Co., KY, Feb. 27; and I heard a single singing Pine Warbler along the Emory River, Morgan Co., TN, yesterday during a canoe trip there, but I would have expected to hear more Pines along that river in early March than just one. The snow event predicted for tomorrow may affect Pine Warblers that are present in a negative manner. If you have a feeding station, this week-end will be a good time to be sure it is well stocked.

From the little work I have so far done with the Regional Great Blue Heron rookeries, it seems that most of the known sites along the Cumberland River are somewhat advanced over the known sites in the Caney Fork watershed. I noted herons already incubating at one site on the Cumberland River in Jackson Co., TN, while in that county on Wed., but no sign of incubators at any of the sites in the Caney Fork area, where some birds are still in the process of constructing or refurbishing nests. Please send along any word you have relating go GTBH rookeries in the Region until the young have fledged (i.e., until August).


An immature White-crowned Sparrow photographed in Cumberland County, Tennessee, during February 2008; photo Kay Stanley.