[TN-Bird] KY Lake; 11/19/06

11/19/06
Henry Co
Pace Point areas & Britton Ford

I had a few hours to kill this morning, and since it may be a little while 
before I get back up there, I had to hit Pace Point. I arrived at Rocky 
Point at about 08:30, with a brutal wind in my face, and practically no 
birds. I only saw maybe 20 loons all day, counting both the Big Sandy and TN 
River sides of Pace Point. I'm sure there are quite a few more around than 
that, but somebody south of us should have some loons to go through!

I hit Pace Point, hoping the big raft of divers was back, but no luck. There 
were a total of 150 Ruddies and 2 Lesser Scaup rafted up in the bay at Pace 
Point. No sign of the Red-necked Grebe again, but the WESTERN seems to have 
set-up shop here, once again inshore in this bay. I saw it come up with a 
couple of nice fish here. When I went on around to Pace Point itself, there 
was a birder there, which turned out to be Q.B. Gray from MS. Q.B. had been 
watching the posts from the area, and made a little trip up. We spent the 
next couple of hours together, pretty productively. Q.B. had already seen 
the Western Grebe on the way in, so we walked around the corner to check out 
the outside of Pace Point, and see if the White-winged Scoters were still 
present. Sure enough, once again off the northeast point, the young 
WHITE-WINGED SCOTER put on a nice show for us. No sign of the adult male 
though. While watching the ducks and gulls here, everything on the island 
scattered. An adult GOLDEN EAGLE made a quick pass over the area, barely 
giving us time to get on it. An adult Golden was seen in this area last week 
by a visiting Nashville birder, so look over any eagles here carefully. Also 
from this spot, I saw a flight of Scaup in the distance, with a dark-winged 
SCOTER amongst them, too far to tell though if Black or Surf. They were low 
going south down the TN River.

We next went to Coot Bay, hoping that the Scaup and Scoter had went down in 
the area. No luck with that, and the fewest birds here I've seen in a long 
while. However, quality makes up for quantity, and the AWOL ADULT MALE 
WHITE-WINGED SCOTER gave us great views from this location. The young 
White-winged at Pace Point had been Q.B.'s 2nd-ever White-winged, and now 
his 1st adult male, the trip was already worth it! We got by far the best 
looks yet at this bird, at times probably less than 200 yards (pretty close 
by big water standards). Out of all the birds I've seen on KY Lake this 
fall/winter, I think this White-winged is my favorite bird of the season.

We next made a quick pass through the LeConte's Sparrow field. We flushed a 
couple, but on the way out finally got a bird to work over to the edge and 
pose nicely for some photographs and great looks. We flushed a Snipe out of 
the ditch on the way in, and had a couple of Lapland Longspurs calling high 
overhead. It's been a few years since I've had Laps here, it seems like it's 
going to be a good year for them. I also had flyover Laps at Lick Creek. The 
water is way up, with practically no flats anywhere I went.

I had time to make a quick pass at Britton Ford, where Q.B. had seen some 
small Canada-type Geese that he thought could have been Cackling Geese. The 
geese weren't in the field where he had them, and I only had a handful of 
Canada and Greater White-fronts. The bay below the observation deck  is now 
closed to boat traffic, and filling up with ducks. Already quite a few 
Canvasbacks, but well over 100 Redheads in the area, the most I've seen in a 
while. Among the sleeping Ruddy Ducks in the distance was a sleeping BLACK 
SCOTER. Another highlight at Britton Ford were my 1st RUSTY BLACKBIRDS of 
the season, a handful among a big flock of Red-wings and Grackles. Among the 
growing number of Black ducks in the area, a hybrid Mallard x Black Duck 
with a distinctive facial pattern is back in the area for at least the 3rd 
year.

For the 1st time in a while, only the 3 expected species of gulls were seen. 
I wasn't able to make it over to the Eagle Creek/Paris Landing area. 
Probably something good there though! I have posted some decent images of 
the male White-winged Scoter and the LeConte's Sparrow. These are in my KY 
Lake; Nov 06 gallery; if interested the following link will take you to the 
1st new image:
http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/70466186

Good Birding!!

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



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