8/28/06 Henry Co (Paris Landing to Big Sandy flats area; but not over to Pace Point area) I spent a few hours this morning checking out close areas at KY Lake. Though KY Lake has finally started drawing down, it needs to come down a little more to expose any extensive shorebird habitat in the areas I usually cover. That being said, the day did produce 10 species of shorebirds, and a very nice collection of gulls and terns at Paris Landing. The island just south of the Paris Landing bridge was my 1st stop. Though the island is fairly small now, it was literally covered in gulls and terns. Diversity was as follows: Ring-billed Gull: 200+ of all ages, including some in full-juvenile plumage Herring Gull: 2 adult-type Laughing Gull: 3 (2 juveniles and 1 1st-summer/2nd-winter type) Franklin's Gull: 1 bird in full-juvenile plumage. This is my earliest Franklin's (1st in August), and 1st in this plumage. By the time the bulk come through over the next couple of months the young birds have pretty-much molted into snappy 1st-winter plumage Caspian Tern: 56 on the island, and at least 20 more flying around the area. Many juvenile birds Forster's Tern: 4 Common Tern: 3 Black Tern: During the 30-minutes or so I watched this area, I had 148 Black Terns fly by heading south. There were about 10 resting on the island. This coincides well with the large numbers of Black Terns that Jeff had in Memphis over the weekend. I checked a few of my regular spots for shorebirds, including the mouth of Little Eagle Creek (just south of Paris Landing), the Eagle Creek flats (Bull Durham Rd), and the flats at the mouth of the Big Sandy (Manor Rd). The Big Sandy flats are barely out, and there is no shorebird habitat yet at Britton Ford. Shorebirds were as follows: Killdeer: ubiquitous Semipalmated Plover: 2 at Eagle Creek (adult and juv.) Greater Yellowlegs: 1 at Little Eagle Creek Lesser Yellowlegs: 4 at Big Sandy flats Spotted Sandpiper: several at Eagle and Little Eagle Creeks Semipalmated Sandpiper: 3 juv. at Eagle Creek Least Sandpiper: 18 at Eagle Creek Pectoral Sandpiper: 34 at Eagle Creek, 2 at Big Sandy Short-billed Dowitcher: 1 juv. at Eagle Creek Wilson's Snipe: 2 at Eagle Creek Not much else of note, several Snowy Egrets and Little Blue Herons mixed in with the ever-present Great Egrets. I spent a little time looking for passerines, but didn't see any obvious southbound migrants. Looking forward to the Lake coming down some more, and warbler migration starting in earnest. Good Birding!! Mike Todd McKenzie, TN birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx www.pbase.com/mctodd =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ 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 ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________