ML617941162

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

Photos. Point-blank audio via Merlin, which did not identify the song (perhaps because it was suppressed by the filter, due to its rarity?). First detected here: 35.1451640, -89.9858460. It stayed in a narrow area -- from the pin to the trail insection labeled on Google Maps (where the OFL trial turns north -- and I was able to keep track of this bird off-and-on from 11:16-12:06ish (~48 min) but, unbelievably (!), it gave its last isolated song perhaps one or two minutes before folks arrived. Frustratingly, it had actually been singing regularly for most of the preceding span, although it’s song activity did seem to wane just prior to it going silent and then MIA. It turns out this bird is quite a bit rarer in West Tennessee than I had anticipated. Although I immediately texted word out to a group of ~20 local birders, I realize now that I should have also directly messaged specific folks, which could have sped up their arrival time. Sorry about that, guys! Most reports on eBird seem to be either singing spring males or females in the fall. Here's those just from the Memphis area: 27 Oct 1985 (male; Shelby Forest): https://ebird.org/checklist/S11016935 29 Sep 1990 (male; Riverside Park): https://ebird.org/checklist/S11016977 11 Sep 1994 (female; The Pits): https://ebird.org/checklist/S17757575 18 Sep 2007 (female; Shelby Farms): https://ebird.org/checklist/S3284060 26 Apr 2009 (?; East Memphis residence): https://ebird.org/checklist/S24863098 18 Sep 2022 (female; Wolf River Greenway): https://ebird.org/checklist/S118987703 25 Apr 2024 (male; Overton Park): this list Thus, it looks like this one and Ryan Pudwell's bird at Wolf River Greenway are the only two regional reports in the past 15 years. West of Jackson, TN, there's 5 other records visible in eBird: three singing males and two females in the fall.

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF400mm f/5.6L USM

ISO

3200

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/6.3

Shutter speed

0.01 sec

Dimensions

4126 pixels x 2518 pixels

Original file size

5.2 MB