One Challenging Statebird and One Easy One in Northeastern Tennessee, March 24, 2022

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!