FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] Golden Eagle at Long Point in KY / plus

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

March 3, 2002
Pace Point Area
Reelfoot Area

The extreme cold and wind made looking out across the water at Pace Point and 
environs a chore. The warm water, cold winds and streaking snow made for 
horrendous heat waves off the surface. We did see a lot of dark objects 
bobbing in and out of the shimmer and probably had a few dozen good looks at 
loons but none of the loons we were looking for. At one place I counted 182 
Pied-billed Grebes sleeping in one long slick.

I birdied with Mike Resch from Massachusetts, helping him fill in a few TN 
and KY holes on his total ticks list. We got quite a few but the weather 
worked against us most of the morning at Pace and Britton Ford. We picked up 
Purple Finch and Pine Siskins but missed Red-breasted Nuthatch along the way. 
Wild Turkeys were seen close up on several occasions. Where there had been 
4000 plus geese last Sunday at Britton Ford, we tallied none on Sunday. We 
did get 22 species of waterfowl for the day after making a run to Reelfoot. 
Green-winged Teal were everywhere we looked in big numbers.

At Long Point in KY we had great and close looks at a hunting sub-adult 
Golden Eagle on two occasions. We had a single Tree Swallow at Long Point. We 
located, Brewer's and Rusty Blackbirds, Lapland Longspurs and Pipits in the 
fields but like to have never kicked up a Savannah Sparrow; they were holding 
on for dear life down in the grass. Many Kestrels and an amazing number of 
Krider's RT Hawks (4 adults and immatures) were seen over the day.

There were flock after flock of Snow Geese along with numerous Ross's in the 
Reelfoot area. I believe it was the most Snow Geese I've ever seen in 
Tennessee and if we had taken our time we could have tallied hundreds of 
Ross's. We had American Tree Sparrows at Black Bayou to go on the list of 9 
sparrows plus Junco for the day. 

We ended the day watching Harriers coming into roost and eventually 6 
Short-eared Owls coursing the fields close around us. It was a cold, windy, 
snowy but rewarding day. 

Good Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL' COOT / TLBA
Bartlett Tenn.


=================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.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
          web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
        jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx      (423) 764-3958
=========================================================