[TN-Bird] Rough weather birding on 3/18 & 3/19

3/18/08
KY Lake areas of Henry Co
Paris Landing, Big Eagle Campground, Britton Ford
3/19/08
Reelfoot area including Lake areas of Obion and Lake Co, and Great River Rd 
south to I-155 in Dyer Co

A day or two late, but not much to report anyway. The weather couldn't have 
been worse, but I hit some of our normally productive areas with Paul Lehman as 
he birded through the area. We met late Tuesday afternoon at Paris Landing, 
hoping for the Surf Scoter I had there late last week, but nothing could be 
made out at any distance with the solid whitecaps we experienced there. The 
only birds of note here were the 1st Cliff Swallows of the year, which were 
numerous. This makes all of the Swallows that are in, except for late-arriving 
Banks.

We had hoped that finding a little shelter would be productive, which had 
worked for him earlier that day with a great run of birds in KY on KY and 
Barkely Lakes (Glaucous, Great Black-backed and 5 Lesser Black-backs, 
Red-necked and Eared Grebes). We found nice conditions at Big Eagle Campground, 
but nothing special. Several loons in the area, and a few Horned Grebes coming 
into nice alternate plumage, swallows everywhere.

Britton Ford produced the only good bird of the day, an adult Lesser 
Black-backed Gull that flew through the area. Otherwise, a decent smattering of 
divers (mostly Ruddies) WAY out, but nothing of interest.

We started the next morning early at Reelfoot, in a driving rain and gail-force 
winds. This continued most of the day. Nothing of note on the Lake from any of 
the vantage points we tried, though a few White Pelicans were nice and TN birds 
for Paul. The fields around Reelfoot are mostly flooded, with good numbers of 
gulls scattered around. We didn't see anything but the 3 expected species, 
although a couple of hundred Bonaparte's sitting around off Van Works Rd 
(location of the Icelands, etc from a couple of years ago) was nice, including 
one bird with a mostly black head already. 

From Reelfoot we worked our way south along the Great River Rd, stopping if 
something caught our eye (not often). A few small groups of Yellowlegs of both 
flavors were around, one group of about 10 Snow Geese, and a couple of Rusty 
Blackbirds were the highlight. I hoped for my 1st Golden-Plovers of the year, 
but no luck.  Surprisingly, not a single Great Egret was seen all day. This 
could be another good year along the River, if we can keep some of this water 
through the spring. The last couple of years have been dry, and shorebirding 
especially tough. 

We crossed-over into the bootheel of MO on I-155 to head south to Big Lake NWR 
in extreme northeast AR; Mallard Lake here had a nice White-winged Scoter, so 
finally a decent bird on the day, even if not in TN. After meeting  up with 
Kenny Nichols and Dick Baxter, we made a futile attempt at a hit-and-miss 
Prairie Falcon in that same area. At this point I backtracked home, while Paul 
continued birding west across AR with Kenny and Dick.

Good Birding!!

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

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