FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Western/Clark's Grebe at Dale Hollow Lake

["Ron Hoff" <dollyron@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tn-birders,
Frank Bills, Sharon Bostick, Dollyann Myers, and myself were birding Dale 
Hollow Lake today to see if we could find anything unusual. We were at the 
Lillydale Recreation Area in N. E. Clay County, when hawkeye Frank spotted a 
group of 75+ Horned Grebes NE of the rec. area. Scanning the group, he found 
one that was noticeably larger. Upon further study, we were able to see that it 
was nearly twice the size of the nearby Horned Grebes and we could also see it 
had a pale bill. We knew at that point that we had an Aechmophorus grebe 
(either Western or Clark's).
The field guides say that the best field mark in winter is the color of the 
bill, but at the distance we were looking from (1.5 + miles) we could not make 
that distinction. There's supposed to be more white in the wing also, but we 
never saw the bird fly. I got one digi-pic through the scope and you can't tell 
much, but the size difference is obvious. 

We tried to drive over to that side of the lake, as the DeLorme gazeteer shows 
a road near that shore, but all the property over there is private and the 
forest blocks any view more than 50 yards from the shore. The location of the 
grebe was in THE very NE corner of Clay County, on the Kentucky line. It's on 
page 66 of the Gazeteer and where we saw the bird was where the word "Trooper" 
of Trooper Island is. It was fairly close to shore.

We walked into the Lillydale Rec. area (which is closed for winter), and went 
down to the bath house, near some camping sites (straight ahead and a bit to 
the right). It was a long way from the bird, but with the scope at 60x, we 
could watch the bird swim and preen fairly well.

Sorry this post is late, but we just got in a few minutes ago.

Ron Hoff
Clinton, Tn.
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------- 
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 
       Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
        endorse the views or opinions expressed
        by the members of this discussion group.
 
         Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
                 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
          web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

    ========================================================