On Saturday September 28th we visited Great Smokey Mountain National Park in the morning and then Douglas Dam and Rankin Bottoms in Tennessee in the afternoon.
After seeing 4 Wild Turkey just after we entered Great Smokey Mountains National Park we stopped off a couple of times to look at migrant warblers. Bay-breasted was the most common warbler in the trees and Tennessee Warbler the most common in the shrubs, and Steve's pishing brought in a Red-breasted Nuthatch for all to see - I had missed one the day before. After going to the mountain top we descended on the Tennessee side and Steve found us a Winter Wren.
After passing through the touristy town of Pigeon's Forge we stopped a couple of times at a vast reservoir, first near the dams and then at some mudflats. Douglas Dam yielded 5 Black Vultures and 6 Black-crowned Night-herons and Rankin Bottoms 28 Pectoral Sandpipers and an American White Pelican. In between we stopped to look at gulls and found one Laughing and one Lesser Black-backed among 30 Ring-bills.
We ended the day at Steve's parent's place where Steve failed to attract the resident Eastern Screech-Owl - our third failure in three tries for a night bird on the trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment