11/19/06 Henry Co Pace Point areas & Britton Ford I had a few hours to kill this morning, and since it may be a little while before I get back up there, I had to hit Pace Point. I arrived at Rocky Point at about 08:30, with a brutal wind in my face, and practically no birds. I only saw maybe 20 loons all day, counting both the Big Sandy and TN River sides of Pace Point. I'm sure there are quite a few more around than that, but somebody south of us should have some loons to go through! I hit Pace Point, hoping the big raft of divers was back, but no luck. There were a total of 150 Ruddies and 2 Lesser Scaup rafted up in the bay at Pace Point. No sign of the Red-necked Grebe again, but the WESTERN seems to have set-up shop here, once again inshore in this bay. I saw it come up with a couple of nice fish here. When I went on around to Pace Point itself, there was a birder there, which turned out to be Q.B. Gray from MS. Q.B. had been watching the posts from the area, and made a little trip up. We spent the next couple of hours together, pretty productively. Q.B. had already seen the Western Grebe on the way in, so we walked around the corner to check out the outside of Pace Point, and see if the White-winged Scoters were still present. Sure enough, once again off the northeast point, the young WHITE-WINGED SCOTER put on a nice show for us. No sign of the adult male though. While watching the ducks and gulls here, everything on the island scattered. An adult GOLDEN EAGLE made a quick pass over the area, barely giving us time to get on it. An adult Golden was seen in this area last week by a visiting Nashville birder, so look over any eagles here carefully. Also from this spot, I saw a flight of Scaup in the distance, with a dark-winged SCOTER amongst them, too far to tell though if Black or Surf. They were low going south down the TN River. We next went to Coot Bay, hoping that the Scaup and Scoter had went down in the area. No luck with that, and the fewest birds here I've seen in a long while. However, quality makes up for quantity, and the AWOL ADULT MALE WHITE-WINGED SCOTER gave us great views from this location. The young White-winged at Pace Point had been Q.B.'s 2nd-ever White-winged, and now his 1st adult male, the trip was already worth it! We got by far the best looks yet at this bird, at times probably less than 200 yards (pretty close by big water standards). Out of all the birds I've seen on KY Lake this fall/winter, I think this White-winged is my favorite bird of the season. We next made a quick pass through the LeConte's Sparrow field. We flushed a couple, but on the way out finally got a bird to work over to the edge and pose nicely for some photographs and great looks. We flushed a Snipe out of the ditch on the way in, and had a couple of Lapland Longspurs calling high overhead. It's been a few years since I've had Laps here, it seems like it's going to be a good year for them. I also had flyover Laps at Lick Creek. The water is way up, with practically no flats anywhere I went. I had time to make a quick pass at Britton Ford, where Q.B. had seen some small Canada-type Geese that he thought could have been Cackling Geese. The geese weren't in the field where he had them, and I only had a handful of Canada and Greater White-fronts. The bay below the observation deck is now closed to boat traffic, and filling up with ducks. Already quite a few Canvasbacks, but well over 100 Redheads in the area, the most I've seen in a while. Among the sleeping Ruddy Ducks in the distance was a sleeping BLACK SCOTER. Another highlight at Britton Ford were my 1st RUSTY BLACKBIRDS of the season, a handful among a big flock of Red-wings and Grackles. Among the growing number of Black ducks in the area, a hybrid Mallard x Black Duck with a distinctive facial pattern is back in the area for at least the 3rd year. For the 1st time in a while, only the 3 expected species of gulls were seen. I wasn't able to make it over to the Eagle Creek/Paris Landing area. Probably something good there though! I have posted some decent images of the male White-winged Scoter and the LeConte's Sparrow. These are in my KY Lake; Nov 06 gallery; if interested the following link will take you to the 1st new image: http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/70466186 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. 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