FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Another good Grebe day!; 2/15/07 Henry Co

[<birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

2/15/07
Pace Point, Britton Ford, and Paris Landing areas
Henry Co.

I weighed the options today of either using my day off this week trying to 
catch-up on numerous things I've been putting off (which I had honestly 
planned to do), or running up to Pace to see if the major weather event to 
the north of us brought any good birds. Needless to say, I took the second 
option, and had a few surprises along the way.

The bay below the old maintenance area going into Pace Point had a lot of 
ice, but not a lot of birds; only a fraction of what was there on my last 
visit. But, out in the main body of water here were 9 COMMON MERGANSERS, 6 
males and 3 females. This is my favorite of our expected wintering ducks, 
though usually they are quite distant like today. They were very active 
today, frequently rising up out of the water, or flying short distances, and 
showing off that nice apricot flush to the underparts of the males.

An initial scan from the Coot Bay area looked very promising, with many 
gulls milling around in the distance. There are still several thousand gulls 
in the area, but nothing at all like my last trip. However, this would be 
the 1st day that I remember in several trips only having the 3 expected 
species of gulls. Common Goldeneye and Red-breasted Mergansers are staging 
in the area big-time right now, with probably well over a 1,000 of each 
scattered around both sides of Pace Point. While scanning through all the 
Horned Grebes in the area, I came across the unmistakable shape of a 
sleeping RED-NECKED GREBE. This was a surprise, as I haven't seen a 
Red-necked (Grebe that is) my last couple of trips, and I don't think it or 
Western had been seen in a couple of months. This Red-necked finally woke 
up, and is coming nicely into alternate-plumage. The head is pretty much 
there, with the beautifully contrasting silver cheek and black crown, and 
some red in the upper neck, the lower neck is still pale though. The basal 
half of the bill is bright yellow. After enjoying this bird for a while, I 
started scanning again when a WESTERN GREBE popped up, followed by a 2nd 
bird. The Grebes were all pretty distant, so I walked back through the woods 
to the same bluff I had the Iceland Gull my last trip, for some better 
views. The Westerns slept most of the time, usually hanging around with 
Red-breasted Mergansers. This area is loaded with ducks, gull, grebes, and I 
had about 50 loons, the most I've had lately. I did have one PACIFIC LOON 
that I came across a couple of times, but that was actively feeding and hard 
to stay on. Another treat here was having a Coyote walk right by, just below 
me.

After getting my fill of these birds, I headed to Pace Point itself; which 
was pretty quiet. There were maybe 500 gulls on the island, but nothing 
unusual. The bay going into Pace was practically empty, but looking back 
toward Rocky Point there was a huge concentration of birds on the water. 
Heat distortion was terrible though. I went to Rocky Point, and had a good 
number of ducks and gulls directly out from me, but the big group that I had 
been looking at, was still unfortunately just barely visible, looking back 
towards Pace Point now. While going through the birds out from Rocky Point, 
a distant female WHITE-WINGED SCOTER was hanging around near some Goldeneye. 
This bird looked to be an adult female, with only a trace of the pale areas 
on the face. I'm assuming this is a different bird than the 1st-winter that 
hung around near Pace Point for so long earlier in the season. I spent a lot 
of time today looking at Goldeneye, and did have one female with a mostly 
yellow-bill, but that was as close as I could get to making her a Barrow's. 
I know Jeff has spent a lot of time going through big numbers of Goldeneye; 
sooner or later we'll get a Barrow's.

Britton Ford was very quiet, with good numbers of dabblers in the close 
bays, but the massive raft of divers out where you couldn't make anything at 
all out on them. I didn't see any geese except Canada and a handful of 
Greater White-fronted. I was really hoping for something good on the island 
at Paris Landing, a Glaucous Gull would have sat pretty well. As I was 
getting closer to the island, I noticed all the gulls clustered on one end, 
and sure enough, there wasn't one, but two, PEREGRINE FALCONS sitting out 
there. They were an adult male and female, but sitting well away from each 
other. Lots of birds around Paris Landing as usual, but nothing out of the 
ordinary. I was pushed for time today, should have just stayed around Pace 
Point.

I've added a couple of shots of the Red-necked and Western Grebes, as well 
as one of the not-too-wily Coyote, in the same gallery as my last photos: 
they start here:
http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/74420082

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd

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