[TN-Bird] Sneak away birding day. Pace Point

Jan. 28, 2004
Pace Point area
Benton and Henry Co. TN
I met Bud Johnson, Mike Todd, Don Manning, Virginia and Tommy Curtis at Paris 
Landing to try for a few birds on some of their state and life lists and to 
look over the huge concentration of gulls.

At 15 degrees in the morning, it was almost too cold for my sandals but once 
we got to birding my nose was cold but my toes were toasty;o) We started at 
Paris Landing and the gull flocks were intimidating. The problem being, there 
are no places to get close to most of these flocks. At the marina we had tons 
of 
Ring-billed Gulls but no other prospects.

Eagle Creek and Port Road were disappointing in that everything was on the 
Point Side. Britton Ford produced 4 goose species as the 2 Ross's are still 
hanging in and we were treated with a small flock of Snow's and Blue's that 
circled around warily because of all the hunting going on around the refuge's 
edge. 
There were 2 Greater White-fronted trying to hide in with the Canada Geese. We 
ended the day with 21 species of waterfowl and gobs of Red-breasted 
Mergansers plus Hooded and 3 Common Mergansers but we were never out of sight 
or sound 
of Goldeneye. There are still big flocks of Greater Scaup plus a lot of Lesser 
Scaup. Also at Britton Ford, we watched 5 immature Bald Eagles taking turns 
diving on a crippled duck, until one finally snatched it from the water and was 
chased by the other 4. It dropped the bird and the bird was finally ferried 
off by another bird with the other 4 in pursuit, to the quicker belongs the 
spoils.

At Big Sandy, we stopped by the eagle roost at mid day and I spotted a single 
dark bird and an adult Bald Eagle. Since one of the target birds was a Golden 
Eagle I decided to scope out the dark bird. It turned into an adult Golden 
and we enjoyed the bird as it flew and returned to the same perch numerous 
times 
and we saw it briefly at dusk as we watched 36 Bald Eagles come into the 
roost. We got there a little late so no telling how many are actually using 
this 
roost but generally 60-70 birds is about normal.

At the Point, we had two groups of gulls which we estimated the total to be 
about 5,000, all sitting, sleeping and preening. We had only the expected 3 
species but with birds flying all around you could sit all day and watch the 
turn 
over. No telling what could be found.

On the Rocky Point side in the Big Sandy reach we had the adult and the 
immature Red-throated Loons every time we stopped to look. These birds are 
extremely hard to pick up but time scanning pays. We only found a single 
Pacific, the 
viewing could have been better but details for the ID were seen. It seems as 
if most of the loons are out in the TN River channel as we saw far fewer in the 
Big Sandy reach than I had counted on Sunday. There have to be still around 
because they are all in extreme wing molt and most can't fly.

Pretty good birding with 3 of the 4 target birds found but I'll have to get 
up there and shift through all those gulls again for the Black-headed. Don 
Manning has birdied up there far longer than I have and he agreed he has never 
seen such a concentration of gulls. I have seen them this concentrated in a 
section before but never in every direction you look.


Good Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett, TN


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