11/28/09 KY Lake (Henry & Benton Co) Lick Creek (Benton Co) Pace Point area, Britton Ford, Eagle Creek (Henry Co) I met a great group of birders today for a run around KY Lake, most from around Nashville, but one from Memphis as well. The day was gorgeous, but unfortunately that also meant that the heat shimmer on the water was terrible this afternoon. We checked Lick Creek twice, and as all subsequent reports since David and I found the Little Gull, we had no luck today. A few Forster's Terns and a few distant White Pelicans were the highlights here. Still lots of Bonaparte's trading in and out of the area, so the Little could still be around. We had just started scanning at Rocky Point when Chris Sloan picked out a Red-necked Grebe. This was a state bird for several today, and after much active feeding, it finally gave us some great looks not too far out. Lots of loons, but many were just too far out, and those that were ID'able were just Commons. Conditions would get drastically worse for the afternoon. A lot of time spent scanning the big raft off Pace Point produced only a couple of Greater Scaup and Redheads among the common divers and dabblers. A few Goldeneye are now present, my first of the fall. Also a few Red-breasted Mergansers in. A big surprise at Pace Point was a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher feeding in the trees at the end of the road. A stop at the observation platform yielded a couple of surprises as well. We had two large white birds sleeping on the near shoreline, blocked by willows to most of us. Finally David Kirschke realized that they weren't Pelicans, which we had written them off as, but were in fact Swans. Finally they raised their heads and were adult Tundra Swans. While here we also had a couple of Sandhill Cranes soar thru high overhead. These were also spotted by David I believe! A brief look at the sparrow field below the observation platform was not very successful for anything unusual. Britton Ford was also very slow, though some Greater White-fronted and Canada Geese were seen by most on the way out. The area that was so good for LeConte's for years has been cleared and turned under, so hopefully this area will come back and be productive again for this much-wanted winter visitor. We had a lot of loons at Big Eagle Campground, overlooking Eagle Creek, but only Commons. We tried Port Rd, and there were massive numbers of loons and gulls on the water, but heat waves made identifying practically anything impossible. We tried Trailer Rd, with absolutely no luck there either. Our last resort, which gave us some nice looks, was working our way out to the mouth of Eagle Creek along Lakeview Dr. Though we didn't have any rare loons here either, we had good numbers and good looks from here to end the day with. We missed several goodies, not even a Lesser Black-backed today, but saw some nice birds to make up for it. Another find day to be out with NTOS. Thanks to everyone for inviting me along! I have posted 5 new shots from today in my winter 2009/2010 gallery. If interested, the first new image starts here: http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/119810998/original Good Birding!! Mike Todd McKenzie, TN birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx www.pbase.com/mctodd =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ MAP RESOURCES Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________