08/30/04 Big Sandy (Pace Point) area Henry Co. KY Lake Dam (Long-tailed Jaeger) I began this morning hoping for a few migrant passerines, and a little bit of mud somewhere on KY Lake. I got very little of either, but did have my 1st of the year Yellow-bellied Flycatcher playing hide and seek with me from the dense, shady cover they like, near Pace Point. Only warbler of the day was a Yellow. Water levels had jumped back up on KY Lake, and there was no mud to be found. Pace Point produced only about 50 Ring-billed Gulls, 5 Caspian Terns, and a single Spotted Sandpiper. At this point I called Hap Chambers to check on her Long-tailed Jaeger at KY Dam. It was still there so the only sensible thing to do seemed to be drive a couple of hours to KY Dam and get a little more familiar with juvenile Long-tailed Jaegers. I arrived and there were several birders there when I got there, and after just a few minutes the bird was relocated, though very distant. After decent, but distant views from a couple of vantage points, Dave Roemer, Robert Dever, and I decided to rent a john boat and (hopefully) get some better looks at the bird. This was an adventure in itself, but we quickly got right up on the bird for some good looks and marginal photo opportunities (a rocking john boat in the middle of KY Lake not being the steadiest of platforms). We got good looks a couple of times, but didn't want to harry the bird and went back to the marina with smiles on our faces. After everyone else left for home, Hap and I were treated to some great looks as the bird flew by our us no more than 30-40 yards off of the overlook, a couple of times. We had hoped for another close landing like they were treated to yesterday, but no luck. We also got to see a patented Jaeger chase of a Caspian Tern. I got a few marginal to decent photos of the bird from the boat, I will be getting them posted shortly. I believe there were some good photos taken by others of the bird, hopefully some will be posted for all to enjoy. For anyone thinking of going for it, I recommend it, but patience may be needed. It spends a lot of its time well out over 1/2 mile from the overlook, and can seemingly turn up out of nowhere after not being seen recently. At this distance it's clearly a Jaeger, and structural clues and at times even plumage clues are visible, but it may take a while to really get a good look at this very crisply-patterned bird. Good birding!! Mike Todd McKenzie, TN Carroll Co. birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx www.pbase.com/mctodd =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================