[TN-Bird] No luck on loon chase

11/30/08
Henry Co
Paris Landing, Port Rd, Trailer Rd, Britton Ford, Pace Point area

David Kirschke joined me today for a rough day of loon viewing. Conditions 
weren't too bad at Port Rd this morning, where we had some nice looks at a 
juvenile Pacific among the 150 or so Commons in view there, with Pacific 
being a TN bird for David. Many Commons were in the bay, but of course the 
Pacific stayed 300-400 yards out. No luck with a Red-throated, or anything 
rarer. We hit Rocky Point late in the day. Conditions there were terrible, 
and a couple of hours of scanning produced nothing. The closest loons from 
here were at least a 1/4 mile, with most farther. I doubt I would have 
picked up Jeff's bird from yesterday, under the conditions we had. Still 
easily 400 loons in the area.

Other highlights included a young Surf Scoter seen from Trailer Rd. 
Initially it was sleeping, then it swam a while before flying up towards 
Port Rd. While at Pace Point, we had an adult/subadult Golden Eagle sail 
right over our head, but unfortunately it kept going away. Britton Ford is 
full of birds now, but we didn't have time to do it justice. One recent 
addition is large numbers of Canvasbacks, with 500+ in now.

Paris Landing had 12 Bald Eagles on the island, which pretty much wrecked 
any hopes we had of a good gull on the island. Very few ducks around Paris 
Landing yet. Gray's Landing (Stewart Co) was also quiet, though a couple of 
flyover flocks of White Pelicans were nice here.

I've added a terrible shot of the Pacific Loon from today (Jeff got some 
good shots the other day of his Pacific, but his computer is temporarily 
down), as well as a shot of the Pelicans passing overhead. 
http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/106551167

Good Birding!!

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

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