FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Henry Co. hotspots 3/4/04

[<birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

3/4/04
Paris Landing area
Britton Ford
Pace Point & vicinity
Henry Co.

Don Manning and I made a very quick run around some of the local
hotspots today. We were short on time so weren't able to spend
significant time in any of the areas, this and atrocious heat shimmer
coming off the water prevented us from seeing anything of note.

We began at Paris Landing which was teeming with ducks and gulls. We
were unable to locate anything unusual in either, but a 2nd-winter
Ring-billed with a lovely apricot blush to the head was a real treat.
There are alot of Scaup in the area, and there could easily be a Scoter
in the mix, but today the shimmer made looking at anything remotely
distant next to impossible. There are several thousand gulls still using
the Paris Landing area, with the roof of the marina packed. Nothing but
Herring and Ring-billed in about every variety of plumage though.

Britton Ford was a disappointment, with the same conditions. Lots of
birds out in the shimmer. Several nice flocks of Pipits were moving
through the area.

At Pace Point, we had no luck with any of the birds that have been seen
of late, and not many loons visible. The number of loons seen late in
the day though when they line-up for roost is always out of proportion
to the number seen during the day, Jeff finds a 5 to 1 ratio usually
works out about right. We only saw about 30  loons today, but there
could still easily be 100 or more lined-up in the afternoon. I had one
distant bird that was preening continuously that could have been the
Yellow-billed, but I couldn't convince myself of it. That was the
impression I got, but it easily could have been one of the paler-headed
Common's in the area, as it was by itself with nothing for a size
comparison. I saw the bill come up above horizontal a couple of times,
but it could have just been looking around, it never stayed up for long,
as the bird has been habitually doing most of the time. I didn't see
anything that even reminded me of a Pacific or Red-throated. Once again
though, we didn't stay very long and viewing conditions were about as
bad as I've seen, so any of the birds could easily still be in the area.
I am wondering though if there has been a movement north already this
week, with the wind and weather coming out of the south. Hopefully the
birds will still be there this weekend.

We had Junco's singing from the tops of trees on the road out to the
point, and a stop in a nice area for Pine Warblers produced them in
total surround sound, they were singing from every direction. Should be
a LA Waterthrush around any day now!

Nothing else much to report, we didn't see the Common Mergansers that
have been in the bay behind the maintenance shed either, these 60's and
70's may have signaled them back north as well. Red-breasted Merg's are
seemingly everywhere. Lick Creek is now full of Bonaparte's Gulls,
whereas a week ago you couldn't find a Bonaparte's in the area anywhere.

Good birding!!

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

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