While monitoring my eBird TN Needs Alert on March 5, 2022 I noticed a report of a White-winged Dove in Bluff City in Sullivan County. That’s close enough to chase after, but often White-winged Doves that show up in the east don’t stay long. Plus this bird was coming to a feeder, and although an address was provided, there was no information on whether birders could visit. So I just wrote it off as an unchaseable rarity.
But the reports kept coming with at least 1 sighting nearly
every day. And I was able to figure out
the homeowner’s name on eBird, and along with the address, I found a phone
number for the homeowner with a couple on-line searches. I wasn’t too excited about calling the
homeowner out of the blue though. So I
reached out to a local birding friend that I ran into while chasing a
White-winged Scoter in Sullivan County a year ago to see if she had any
information on the Dove. It turned out my
friend knew the homeowner and saw the bird on the 20th. Here were the details – the Dove was coming
to the feeding station in the backyard that was not visible from the
street. Although the bird was
occasionally seen perched in trees in the front yard, by far the best viewing
was from inside the house looking to the feeders in back.
So of course, I’d need permission from the homeowner to come
inside to watch the feeders. Some
birders had been granted access, why not try as well. My friend offered to contact the homeowner on
my behalf to pave the way. And after
that first contact, I sent an e-mail to the homeowner to ask permission. Here was her reply -
“We are currently getting a little tired of all the
attention the bird has caused. If it were a life bird for you, I would be
more encouraging. The bird is usually here now only once a day, and every
day it gets scared away by all the attention. We would prefer to start
giving the bird a break if possible.
“All I can say is, if you really want to see the bird, be
here at 8:00 a.m. Please stay in your vehicle as people standing in the
street usually scare it away. Also, please no walking around in our
backyard as, again, the bird is very nervous and won't appear when people are
standing around.”
I guess birders can love our birds a little too much…
At first, I wasn’t too encouraged about making the long
drive if I was limited to just viewing from the road and not directly at the
feeders. But most of the recent
sightings mentioned seeing the Dove perched in river birches in the front
yard. So perhaps if I and any other birders
who happen to be there stay in our cars, this might be a successful strategy after
all. Game on!
And now that I committed to making the drive to TN, I went
back to the Needs Alerts to see if there might be any other targets to pursue
nearby. Sure enough there were several
recent sightings of a Mute Swan at Steele Creek Park in Bristol just 20 minutes
to the north. But was it a countable wild
bird? One post mentioned that a
well-known nearby feral Swan was still in its regular spot. And another post mentioned that the park naturalists
checked locals who have Swans and no one was missing one. So they determined it was a wild bird. Countable it is!
So my plan was to first head to Bluff City and hope to get lucky
with the White-winged Dove. Then head to
Steele Creek Park to look for the Mute Swan.
The morning of the 24th I was out of the house by 6 which
had me rolling into Bluff City by 7:45.
I pulled in front of 404 River Chase Cove and positioned my car to give
me the best views of the tall birch trees in the front yard. A few minutes later another car pulled up
behind me and luckily both birders stayed in their car. Not a minute later a pair of Doves flew into
the trees – but they were both Mournings.
Several other Mourning Doves flew in a bit later, and after brief stops
on the roof or in the trees, all disappeared behind the house presumably
heading to the feeders. Then I noticed
another Dove on the roof of the house next door – yet another Mourning, which
again dropped out of sight. Seconds
later it was replaced by another Dove. I
put this one in my binoculars and I instantly spotted the white leading edge of
the wing – it was my target White-winged Dove!
I got this miserable digi-binned shot where the white on the wing is
barely visible.
The WWDO had appeared at 7:56, and at 7:59 it followed all the other Doves into the backyard out of view. I waited another 30 minutes hoping to see the bird again but never re-spotted it. While waiting for it to reappear a Mourning Dove landed on my windshield wiper. I guess I was being quite enough after all!
My statebird map for White-winged Dove is inserted below. Blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species in its regular range. Cross-hatched states are the couple remaining ones in its regular range where I’ve yet to catch up with it. And the 9 tan states are those where I’ve seen this species as a rarity which is prone to vagrancy.
Next I was off to the Steele Creek Park to try for the Mute Swan. I was more optimistic about this one as it had been around for at least 3 weeks. As I neared the Park driving through a residential community I flushed a flock of sparrows from the road side. One had white outer tail feathers which I confirmed as a Vesper Sparrow after a short search. That was a nice find but not new for my TN list.
Minutes later I entered the Park and headed right to the lake. I quickly found a couple pairs of Canada
Geese but no big white waterfowl. I
walked a short distance to the east to see another portion of the lake and
there was the Mute Swan “grazing” on the grass at the water’s edge. That was easy. As shown in this digi-binned picture the bird
was not banded. And at one point it stretched
its wings which were not pinioned. Sure
seemed wild to me.
TN was my 4th state where I’ve seen Mute Swan as a rarity as it strayed outside of its regular range in the Northeast and Midwest.
While looking at the Swan another birder pulled up. I mentioned to her that I had just come from seeing the White-winged Dove. She said she had seen the bird the previous day on her 13th try! Boy was I lucky. And speaking of being lucky, I was apparently the last birder to see it as the Dove was not reported after the 24th. Good thing I didn’t wait till a later day to give a try.
With the addition of 2 nice rarities that brings my TN
statelist up to 252. A fun morning of statebirding!
