[TN-Bird] Tufted Duck photos (not TN!)

The following post does not directly concern TN birds, but:
It's not too often there is a TUFTED DUCK within a few hours driving
distance of TN. A Tufted Duck showed up last February on Lake Dardanelle in
western Arkansas, and stayed into March. Kenny and LaDonna Nichols, finders
of the bird originally, found what is surely the same bird again a couple of
weekends ago. Luckily, though Dardanelle is a big lake, the Tufted hangs
around with Scaup in the area out from the Nichols cabin. If anybody is
interested in more info on this bird, let me know. It is definitely an
easier chase than northern California or the upper east coast where they
usually show.  Hopefully it will stay the whole winter. It's still in
eclipse plumage right now, but should brighten up shortly.

I made the 700 mile roundtrip Monday morning for the bird, arriving in the
area about 08:00. I must admit it was a rough 12-hours at work afterwards on
Monday night, but well worth it. At times the bird has come in fairly close
for some nice photos, but not for me. The closest I ever had the bird was
probably 300-400 yards, and it was well out farther than that when I finally
picked it up after about an hour of looking. There are several large groups
of Scaup in the area, so it can take some looking to find. The bird slept
95% of the limited time I had, making photography an exercise in
frustration.

Anyway, I've posted 5 very distant shots of this bird, mostly sleeping,
though one does show the tuft pretty obviously. They are in a new gallery,
at: http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/gallery/tufted_duck , the 1st shot shows the
tuft best, the rest show the overall look of the bird. If nothing else they
show what a distant, sleeping, Tufted Duck looks like. :") Jeff got much
better photos of this bird last winter. If it stays I'll probably wind up
back over there at some point, especially since there is no telling what
else Kenny and LaDonna will turn up.

On another note, hopefully the Ibis at Reelfoot will hang around for others
to enjoy, but I don't know what it'll think about the arctic blast that's on
the way.

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (home)
Michael.c.todd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (work)
www.pbase.com/mctodd



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