Dec. 7-8, 2002 Pace Point Area Henry - Benton Co. TN The concentration of waterfowl, grebes and gulls in the Big Sandy reach is mind boggling. Evidently the extreme change in water temps has caused a fish kill. Very small shad minnows are washing up on the shores and the birds are spread all across this area, alula to alula. I arrived early on Saturday and had ducks stacked in the cove just before you reach the point. Over 300 Common Goldeneye were seen in one continuos line with more in every quarter. In the next two days I had 21 species of waterfowl that included; a single Ross's Goose, all three mergansers and on Sunday, Mike Todd, Don Manning and I had great looks at a single adult female Long-tailed Duck a.k.a. Oldsquaw. A great find but a species I already had on my Year List. Big numbers of Horned and Pied Grebes got my hopes up for a Red-necked but scanning for two days didn't pay off. Common Loon numbers were down to around 50 birds and most had moved out to deeper water. Bald Eagles were frequently seen harassing groups of ducks and gulls. Sharp-shinned and Cooper's were seen hunting the area along with Red-tailed, Red-shouldered and Harriers. In the gull category, the rewards were few considering the number I looked at and I shall kick myself for a lapse that possibly caused me to miss a great year bird. Just prior to being joined by the Nashville group Saturday, I found my first ever 2nd year Lesser Black-backed Gull. I have seen all the other ages of this species at Pace but never a second year. While studying this bird another gull caught my attention as it bathed farther out from the LBB. My interest was mainly on the LBB and I should have stayed on the 2nd bird because on later thought it was probably the bird of the weekend. We looked for this gull all morning long on Sunday but could not even find the Lesser Black-backed Gulls. When Casey and friends arrived Saturday morning, I showed them the 2nd year LBB and then saw a 1st year LBB land in the large group. Everyone, I think, got satisfying looks at this classic immature. I don't know how long this phenomena will last but I highly recommend getting over to the Big Sandy "bonanza of birds" if you can get away. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL' COOT / TLBA Bartlett Tenn. =================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. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================