[TN-Bird] KY Lake area; 11/24/06

11/24/06
KY Lake (Henry Co)
Pace Point area & Britton Ford

Mark Greene and I spent most of the day birding around the general Pace 
Point vicinity. We arrived at Pace Point at 08:00, and I was glad to see 
that the big raft of divers that's been missing my last couple of trips, was 
in full-force in the bay off the west side of Pace Point. Within 5 minutes, 
we had Mark's main target, the WESTERN GREBE, as well as the RED-NECKED 
GREBE and immature WHITE-WINGED SCOTER among the masses here. Shortly 
thereafter, we picked up a 2nd RED-NECKED GREBE, to make a repeat of last 
winter when 2 Red-necked Grebes stayed around the area. Nothing else out of 
the ordinary, but good numbers of Greater Scaup.

Loon numbers are back up, with over 200 in view from Rocky Point later, but 
nothing unusual in the mix. Horned Grebe numbers are the largest I think 
I've ever seen, probably 1000 in the area. One big pod off of Pace Point had 
over 250 Horned Grebes. The east side of Pace Point was pretty quiet, and we 
didn't see any Goldeneye or Red-breasted Mergansers today. We had a distant 
Eagle sitting along the bay at the new observation tower site (long way from 
being anything though). We had bad light on the bird, but it was almost 
certainly a Golden.

We were joined after lunch by Wayne Forsythe of North Carolina. Wayne and I 
had been talking about LeConte's Sparrows, and he thought this sounded like 
a good enough shot to make an 800 mile round-trip drive for. It worked out 
great as we hadn't been in the field probably 10-minutes when we got short, 
but excellent looks at one of these little beauties! Afterwards, Mark had to 
leave for home and I decided to go to Britton Ford where Ed Conrad had told 
me he'd seen 6 Cackling Geese a day or two before. Q.B. Gray also thought he 
had Cackling Geese here last weekend. Sure enough, in the bay at the north 
entrance road to Britton Ford, among the 100+ Canada Geese there, were 6 
little Richardson's CACKLING GEESE. They associated with the bigger boys, 
but always the 6 stayed together. While at Britton Ford I ran into a 
beginning bird from Jackson, and we watched these birds for about the last 
30-minutes of good light. Beware, there are some small, lesser-type Canada 
Geese in the area as well. Though the small Canada Geese aren't much bigger 
than the Cackling Geese, they still have the proportions, and head and bill 
shape of the bigger geese.Eventually the Canada and Cackling Geese all swam 
out of sight around the point to the east. Also here were several Greater 
White-fronted Geese, and a single Snow Goose came in while we were there.

Not much else at Britton Ford, though nice looks at a Rusty Blackbird are 
always welcome. The bay below the observation tower wasn't as crowded as the 
last time I was here, but still lots of birds there. Good numbers of 
Canvasbacks and Redheads still. We decided to leave when the Great Horned's 
started dueting, that seemed a good note to close on.

I've posted a few marginal photos, including a shot with both Red-necked 
Grebes and the Western Grebe in it, another shot of young White-winged 
Scoter, a shot of the rather lightly-marked Rusty Blackbird, and 4 shots of 
the Cackling and Canada Geese. These are in my KY Lake; Nov 06 gallery. The 
1st new photo starts here: http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/70742562 , 
clicking the next tab will take you to the next image. Or you can just click 
the 'KY Lake; Nov 06' tab once you're in the gallery, and it will bring all 
the photos up in that gallery for you to chose from.

Good Birding!!

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

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