June 17th we posted an article about The White Morph of the Great Blue Heron that was discovered below Chickamauga Dam on Tuesday June 9. This beautiful bird is very rare to Tennessee as only 3 had been reported before and none from East Tennessee.
Then on Sunday June 21 Riverwalk Bird Club members Jimmy and Cynthia Wilkerson were traveling south on Corridor J and noticed a large white bird in a small pond on Thomas Farm, they knew about the Great White Heron at Chickamauga Dam and stopped to check the white bird on the pond.
Jimmy set up the spotting score and quickly discovered it was a White Morph Great Blue Heron.
Knowing this was a rare bird Jimmy reported it to several members of TOS and also posted it’s location on TN-BIRD after driving to Chickamauga Dam to see if it may be the same bird.
He did not locate the bird at the dam. RWBC member Harold Sharp checked to bird at the dam next day and drove to Thomas Farm but did not located the Thomas bird, so the mystery remained.
Tuesday RWBC members Don Broyles, Bill Pack and Roger Garner were at the dam from 8:30am watching the White Heron while Harold Sharp was at Thomas Farm pond photographing the pond White Heron at 9:35am. He drove to the Dam and photographed the Great White Heron at the dam at 10:03am .
Both birds are still here and we hope you enjoy these photo’s of the” Pair of Aces” as much as the tourists aboard the Southern Belle enjoyed viewing this rare and beautiful Great White Heron.
Good birdin’
