[TN-Bird] Little Gull etc. (KY Lake)

From: <birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:01:58 -0600
11/19/09
KY Lake area of Benton and Henry Co

I birded the morning with a friend from out of the area, and it was 
extremely slow until we popped into Lick Creek at 11:30 or so.

We started at Rocky Point on the Big Sandy Refuge, with quite a few loons, 
but most on the other side and visible just as shapes. Nothing but Commons 
could be identified. A few Horned Grebes, etc around, but nothing unusual at 
all. Pace Point was more of the same, lots of ducks, including numerous 
Redheads and Greater Scaup, but no Scoters, or good Grebes, only Ringers and 
Herring Gulls. A walk around the outside of the sparrow field produced 
nothing, though most of the field is a little too wet for LeConte's taste. 
No Eagles up soaring, nada..........................

Lick Creek was last on our agenda on the way back to Big Sandy. Quite a few 
Bonaparte's Gulls were here (my first of the year ironically), and I made 
the comment that this would be a good place for a Little Gull, since we 
haven't had one very recently that I could remember. Within a few minutes, 
while scanning the small groups of Bonaparte's flying around, a striking 
little 1st-cycle LITTLE GULL flew thru my field of view. Luckily this group 
was coming our way and sat down at the back of the bay there, so it didn't 
take long to get the bird in the scope, for his lifer. It was terribly 
backlit, so we walked thru the woods to get a better angle there. The bird 
made several flights of different durations, but would come back to the back 
of the bay. I had to leave briefly, but came back and the bird was still 
there when I left at about 3:00 PM.

I have posted a number of shots of this bird in my winter 2009/2010 gallery 
on Pbase. These are all distant shots, most of them 100% crops, so they 
don't really do the bird justice. But, they do show the marks and overall 
look of the bird pretty well. If interested, the 1st new shots here: 
http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/119538780/original . This is actually a 
banded Black-capped Chickadee from a weekend trip with my wife to 
Gatlinburg, but there are a number of shots of the Little Gull following 
that. I mapped the Lick Creek location on Pbase for anyone who is curious 
and didn't know where it was.

I hope to get back over there mid-week of next week, and obviously will 
check and see if the Little Gull is still around. Hopefully someone else can 
make it over to try for the bird.

Good Birding!!

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

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[TN-Bird] Little Gull etc. (KY Lake)

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