[tn-bird] February Big Day

Saturday, February 23, 2002

Reelfoot Lake (Lake Co.) to Pace Point (Henry Co.) TN

Chris Sloan and myself (Jay Desgrosellier) had been throwing around the idea 
of a big day route that started at Reelfoot Lake and ended at Pace Point for 
at least a year now and this weekend we decided to give it a field test.

The day started at 5:30 am with a check for the Barn Owls in Tiptonville with 
no success. The extreme cold put a damper on the morning, especially for 
Chris, who I think would admit, foolishly left his long johns at home. Brrrr! 
Upon reaching Walnut Log Road the day got off to a bang as we tallied all of 
the expected woodland birds with the notable exception of White-breasted 
Nuthatch which we would incomprehensibly miss on the day.

At a pond just up the road from Walnut Log we found one of our best birds of 
the day. Two TREE SWALLOWS flew perched on a wire as we watched in amazement 
that these birds had already arrived in the area. Not long after, we found our 
second good bird of the day. A PEREGRINE FALCON sat in a field about 150 yards 
north of Stateline Road, meaning that it was in Kentucky! Bummer!

The Reelfoot area produced some good birds such as large flocks of SNOW GEESE 
flying about, with one flock producing 3 ROSS'S GEESE. About 20 AMERICAN WHITE 
PELICANS were found on the lake out from Samburg. However, we missed some of 
the Reelfoot specialties including American Tree Sparrow and Lapland Longspur.

Around 11:30 we headed east toward Pace Point. We quickly added many waterfowl 
including a PACIFIC LOON out from Paris Landing. At the point we found a 
RED-THROATED LOON and a single female COMMON MERGANSER in the pond behind the 
maintenance building. As dusk approached we managed to find a single first 
year GOLDEN EAGLE in the eagle roost. The spectacular day ended with 102 
species. Not a bad first run of this route.

Good Birding,

Jay Desgrosellier


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