FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Duck River to Paris Landing area; 11/10/05 (long)

["Todd, Michael C." <michael.c.todd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

11/10/05
Duck River Unit TNWR (Humphreys Co.)
Big Sandy to Paris Landing (Henry Co.)
As Thursday was my only day off in this 70+ hour work week, what better way
to spend it than birding (much more fun than doing all of those other things
I should have been doing anyway). Don Manning and I decided to go to Duck
River, which neither of us had been to in a while. We had some nice birds
there, but it hurt us late in the day when we didn't have much time by the
time we got to the Paris Landing area. The last front has brought a huge
increase in both diving ducks, and loons. This area is ripe for a good bird
to be found right now; hopefully Jeff is coming up this weekend, as I'll be
working all weekend.

The Duck River bottoms in the refuge we literally crawling with Sparrows,
hundreds of Song and Swamp Sparrows, with a constant serenade by
White-crowns and White-throats. No unusual sparrows were seen, though
Vespers are always nice. Lingering passerines included Gray Catbird and
Common Yellowthroat, with another good warbler that got away. The flats at
the mouth of the Duck River were covered with waterfowl, with a small flock
of American White Pelicans thrown in. A few Snow Geese were among the
Canadas, which included several that were probably Lessers, but nothing
quite of Cackling proportions. 

A few nice lingering shorebirds were on these flats, including a
Black-bellied Plover, and my 1st group of Long-billed Dowitchers (12) of the
season. Bald Eagles were numerous as well, with 6 sitting around on the
flats. The highlight from Duck River though was a very distant large raptor
that just wasn't flying right for a Bald Eagle; sure enough, a nice juvenile
Golden Eagle was soaring in the distance. We were treated to some fine
aerial jousting between this bird and a young Bald Eagle, before the Golden
eventually sailed away to the southwest.  

The Big Sandy/Pace Point area was pretty quiet, with the water up quite a
bit. Nothing unusual, though duck numbers continue to grow, with more
American Black Ducks and Scaup in particular, as well as many more Ruddies.
A mid-afternoon vigil from Rocky Point produced 70+ loons, all looking
pretty Common. A trip to the end of the refuge road, overlooking the Big
Sandy, produced only a couple of loons, and nothing else of interest.

We were short on time, so we skipped Manor Rd, thus not looking over the
flats at the mouth of the Big Sandy. Our next stop was Britton Ford, which
is still very quiet, very few ducks or geese are present right now. They
should be closing the bay to boat traffic shortly, after which things should
pick up. The flats that have held Franklin's Gulls the last two times I was
there, were void of gulls, and only a handful of dabblers (including a Wood
Duck, which are pretty scarce up there right now). Shorebirds here included
a Dunlin and 2 Least Sandpipers, as well as Killdeer and a Wilson's Snipe.
While we were looking over the flats, Don noticed a couple of large raptors
soaring towards us. These wound up being a 2nd-year Bald Eagle, and another
juvenile Golden Eagle. We had great looks at this Golden, which eventually
soared away to the northeast, back towards Big Sandy. Hopefully this bird
will hang around and be part of the Big Sandy Eagle roost. 

From here we went to the Eagle Creek flats. Only a few gulls were here, of
the 3 expected species with a smattering of Forster's Terns thrown in. The
flats were crawling with American Pipits, of which I counted 128 and no
doubt missed many more. We had at least twice this many in some fields in
Henry Co earlier in the day as well. Shorebirds here were mainly Killdeer,
with a handful of Least and Dunlin as well as a single Greater Yellowlegs,
making for 7 species on the day; not bad for mid-November.

We got to Paris Landing with little time to spare before going to Port Rd
for the late afternoon loon line-up. This was a shame, as I hadn't expected
the thousands of various ducks that were rafted up off of the State Park.
When I was here Sunday, there was only 1 raft of Scaup, totaling about 20
birds, with a Surf Scoter thrown-in. Thursday, there were well over 1000
Scaup in the area, with Greaters in the mix. Several Canvasbacks were also
sleeping. This congregation was mixed in with good numbers of Ring-necks and
Ruddies, as well as various dabblers. Put this on top of the thousands of
American Coots that were intermingled, and we ran out of time long before
being able to thoroughly go through the birds. I felt we would pull a Scoter
of the crowd, but it didn't happen. Horned Grebes were everywhere as well,
but none could be turned into an Eared Grebe.  

Port Rd was the icing on the cake, with Loons lined up literally by the
hundreds. I got a count of over 400 Common Loons from Port Rd, though many
were out in the shimmer enough that they were just loons. At one time I
counted 110 birds in my scope, where two lines of loons had entered the same
area. None of the birds looked really interesting, and all that I could see
well were Commons. I had hoped to pick up the Pacific that I had from Rocky
Point on Sunday again, but no luck. I have no doubt that there is a loon in
that mix besides a Common though.

I have posted a shot of the Britton Ford Golden Eagle here:
http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/52078430

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
michael.c.todd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (work)
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (home)
www.pbase.com/mctodd





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