FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] KY Lake area; 10/5/05

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10/5/05
KY Lake area

Highlights: Red-necked Phalarope and Blackpoll Warbler

I met Ken Oester today at Paris Landing for a look around at some of the 
regular spots. I was surprised when we spotted Terry's Phalarope still working 
the island at Paris Landing. Ken 1st spotted the bird, as we were looking from 
the State Park, and believe me that is a long way off to pick up that tiny 
little spinner. Light was terrible this morning for viewing the island, so we 
left to try it again later in the day with the Sun more to our advantage.

The Eagle Creek flats area was pretty quiet, with Blue-winged Teal the only 
ducks present. No sign of the Mottled Ducks or the Mallards they like to hang 
around with. I was informed that the Mottled's were seen as late as 09:30 on 
Saturday morning, this may have been the last sighting of these birds. Other 
birds at Eagle Creek included a single American Golden-Plover, Western 
Sandpiper and Pectoral Sandpiper, and Wilson's Snipe. There were no Franklin's 
Gulls in the area, though a flock of over 100 Forster's Terns did have a couple 
of Common Terns in the mix. 

The Big Sandy flats were totally devoid of birds, other than Great Egrets and 
Great Blue Herons; I wonder if a Peregrine might have had something to do with 
this, as they like this area? Warblers were in short supply, but we did see one 
species that I had given up on this year in TN, as I missed it this spring. As 
with the Cape May I had last month, Blackpolls usually go east of us in the 
fall, but we had a very nice 1st-fall Blackpoll come in and land within 10 feet 
of us for a few seconds to check out the pishing. Other warblers today were 
multiple TN and Black-throated Greens, along with Yellow-rumped and Magnolia. 
Rose-breasted Grosbeaks weren't as prevalent as the last few times I've been 
out. A Lincoln's Sparrow was also my 1st of the year, as was Dark-eyed Junco.

Britton Ford was pretty quiet, except for another juvenile American 
Golden-Plover at the same spot Terry had one on Sunday. We left Britton Ford to 
return to Paris Landing, and had much better light. The adult Lesser Black-back 
has developed extensive head and nape streaking over the last few weeks since 
it arrived (assuming it is the same bird), but otherwise only a single 
1st-winter Laughing Gull was seen among the Herring and Ring-bills. Caspian and 
a few Forster's completed the mix, along with our little Phalarope.

These semi-distant winter-plumage Phalaropes have given me a hard time the few 
times I've seen them. There is just no substitute for actual experience with a 
particular bird. My Red-necked experience (other than growing up:") has largely 
been of a couple of flocks zooming by well out to sea. The bird always looked 
to have the thin bill of a Red-necked (though last fall's Red at Britton Ford 
initially fooled me on this point), but the upperparts were more uniform than I 
was expecting for a Red-necked. The wing-stripe didn't appear to be quite as 
bold as I remember our Red from Britton Ford last fall. When the bird was at 
the right angle, you could make out the indistinct light markings on the back. 
The bird slept a few feet off the island, always at the far end, for most of 
the time I watched it. It did some preening, and finally fed in a variety of 
methods. It would feed just off the bank, then fly a bit farther out to work 
its way back in. It did feed on the shoreline among the gulls for a while, 
running occasionally. And it also fed out well off the shore with some 
Shovelers on one occasion. I never saw it spin though. I called Don Manning, 
who made it up this afternoon to get a look at the bird, his lifer. 

I have posted a couple of VERY distant shots of this little guy, at: 
http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/rednecked_phalarope 

Good Birding!!

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