[TN-Bird] Hatchie NWR and Pace Point Areas

DEC. 24, 2005
Hatchie NWR - Haywood Co.
Paris Landing, Port Road, 
Britton Ford and Pace Point
Henry Co. TN
 
I made a run for Mike Todd's Western Grebes at Britton Ford but came up  
short on those two but I did manage 2 west TN year birds. A quick stop  at 
Oneal 
Lake in Hatchie to see if the Vermilion has come back, produced 2  immature 
Tundra Swans. Pretty poor lighting and rain made for poor but IDable  photos. 
There were also 2 adult Bald Eagles sitting in one tree and 4 Cackling  Geese 
in 
with the Canada Geese.
 
At Paris Landing there were tons of gulls and I located a 2nd winter  
California Gull just north of Gary's Landing and my second year bird was an  
immature 
Glaucous Gull sitting on the bar out from Paris Landing State  Park. 
 
Loons were found in low numbers and all were Common. There were 14 in the  
Big Sandy Reach and 16 on the TN River side of Pace Point. I kept going back to 
 
Britton Ford looking for the Western Grebes but no luck. I did have 7 
Sandhill  Cranes, first found off the refuge and then back in the corn field, 
near 
the old  LeConte's Sparrow site. There are thousands of ducks in all 3 bays but 
nothing  more interesting than a leucistic hen Mallard to add to my off 
colored bird  page. There also was a small, immature hawk that really has me 
scratching my  head....no light, raining = poor photos!
 
At the overlook, at the Big sandy Unit of TN-NWR, where the old maintenance  
shed was (they are building a big raised platform which is surely not needed 
at  this location as you already have all the elevation you need, what a waste 
of  good money???) I found an adult and a 1st year Golden Eagle, I got photos 
of the  young bird in flight and perched. About 30 minutes later I found 
another adult  with a sub-adult on the west side of Pace Point. I'm pretty sure 
the 
adults were  not the same bird.
 
There are more Goldeneye than you can shake a stick at but still not  besting 
my personal high total of over 3,000 during the big freeze a few  years back. 
Surely there is one Barrow's in there, someone needs to find it  before year 
end.
 
I still need a Long-tailed Duck for my WEST TN BIG YEAR, let me know if  that 
or an Eared Grebe show up, preferably together ;o)
 
 
 
Good Birding  !!!
Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA
6298 Memphis-Arlington Road
Bartlett, TN  38135


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