FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Broad-tailed Hummer trip

[<birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

12/5/05
Signal Mntn; Hamilton Co. TN

Thanks to the updates, and several very helpful TN-Birds posters (as well as 
the extremely hospitable host, Dan Williams) Don Manning and I made a 
successful early morning run up to Signal Mountain for the Broad-tailed 
Hummer.

We got there at 08:00 (eastern), and spent an hour and a half enjoying this 
little jewel. This was all the sweeter after two trips in two days to 
Nashville only to miss the bird both times when TN's 1st Broad-tailed was in 
Nashville. Lighting was terrible this morning the entire time we were there. 
I caught the light right several times (especially off of the deck lighting 
above the feeders I think) to see the gorgeous pinkish-rose gorget feathers, 
but never could capture this in an image. It was a challenge getting any 
photos of the bird at all, having to shoot at high ISO to get any light at 
all.

The bird spent most of its time perched out in a pine tree just off of Dan's 
deck, where it kept an eye on the feeders, and would occasionally harass a 
nearby Chickadee or Cardinal. Most of its visits to the feeder today were 
very short, but frequent.

As I had intended to work tonight, thus the reason we left at 02:00 this 
morning, we didn't do much birding on the way back. I would have loved 
another shot at a photo of the Black-throated Sparrow, but not today. We did 
make a quick trip to Woods Reservoir on the way home (Franklin Co.) and saw 
a surprising number of loons on a very rough lake. There were easily over 
100 loons scattered around the parts of Woods that we could access, nothing 
but Commons though. One bird that got away though was a Scoter (Surf or 
Black) seen flying away from us with a flock of Scaup.

I have posted 4 photos of the Broad-tailed Hummer, in my small gallery for 
this species. The 1st two images are from AZ, the last four are from TN. See 
at: http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/broadtailed_hummingbird , clicking any image 
will enlarge it, and then you can navigate with the previous or next tab.

Good Birding!!

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

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