[TN-Bird] Pace Point and Britton Ford areas (Henry Co) 1/5/2015
- From: Michael Todd <birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: TN-Bird Listserv <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 01:55:54 -0800
1/5/2015
Pace Point and Britton Ford areas of Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge; Henry
Co
Spent a few hours on KY Lake this very cold morning. The sudden change in temp
produced some of the worst heat shimmer on the water I have ever seen. Anything
out over a few hundred yards was just a blur.
Started at Rocky Point, saw a few loons flying but they disappeared when they
hit the water; literally never picked out a loon on the water! Massive frenzy
of feeding gulls out mid-channel on the Big Sandy here, but they were just a
blur as well. Did have a male Long-tailed Duck in (barely) close enough to ID,
luckily they are about as distinctive as it gets! Large flock of Red-breasted
Mergansers in close enough to see moderately well, no Commons in the area
though (that I could see anyway). Pace Point itself was pretty much devoid of
birds, wind direction probably had a lot to do with this though. Large raft of
divers way out off west side of point, but too far to do much with.
Lots of ducks at the Bennetts Creek Overlook, nothing interesting though. Other
highlight of the day was here as well. Just after getting out of the car and
setting up my scope, large numbers of ducks on the south side of the bay took
flight. Looked up to see a dark eagle sailing across the bay, only in profile
though, but got a good look to confirm adult Golden as it banked up into the
interior of one of the pine trees on the north shore of the bay. It basically
disappeared when it hit the tree, and no matter where I moved I couldn't find
it. One the way out I stopped along the road in the open fields for a different
angle, and immediately found it in the same spot. Managed a few digiscopes from
about 3/4 mile away. This is my first Golden on this unit of the refuge since
2009; had seen them regularly up til then.
Went thru Britton Ford after leaving Big Sandy. Not much to report, lots of
ducks but most too far out in the shimmer to do much with. Highlight here was
watching 7 Bald Eagles clear out all the ducks (that could fly) at the
overlook. They first singled out a crippled Gadwall, and after many passes one
finally plucked it from the surface and attempted to leave with it. As the
other eagles were harrassing the captor, the Gadwall was dropped numerous
times, usually to be picked up by another eagle. Eventually, they made it over
to the bank where it was dropped there. Amazingly, after all this effort, they
all left the several injured Gadwall there just flopping around. From here they
went over and tag teamed a crippled Mallard on the other side of the bay! This
went on a few minutes before they gave up on this and all perched in trees
overlooking the Mallard. I assume at some point after I left they took care of
both crippled ducks.
For anyone interested, I've uploaded a couple of images from today; Golden
Eagle shots and a distant shot of 6 Bald Eagles perched in close proximity.
First image starts here: http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/158726311/original
Good Birding!!
Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd
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