March13-14, 2004 Pace Point / Paris Landing, etc. Henry Co. TN Nine birders spent all day Saturday searching the loons around the point. The only confirmed species were Common and Red-throated. During the day we could find 30-40 loons from various points and coves. There are still at least 3 Red-throated Loons around with two immatures, one on the TN RV side and one in Big Sandy reach and Sunday morning I had an adult off Paris Landing near the bridge. Saturday morning I saw a distant Red-necked Grebe which we confirmed later as it came into roost that evening on the Big Sandy reach, swimming like a small tug among the Common Loons. We saw many small Common Loons in the mix, some exceptionally so but all turned out to be Common. A few birders had come down from KY for the YBLO and also lifer Red-throated. I found them the very most cooperative Red-throated out from the Point. The water was almost glassy still and the bird quit diving and proceeded to preen just a couple of hundred yards out. Unbelievable Life looks at a small, pale immature Red-throated. Late that evening, David Chaffin and I put the loons to bed off the cove on the TN RV side and in one sweep counted 116+ Common and 1 Red-throated immature. The numbers were down but not as much as I first thought. When they were pretty well settled, we rushed to Rocky Point and counted 56 Common, 1 Red-throated and 1 Red-necked Grebe in last light. Even though gulls were actually seen in relative low numbers all day, they filled Big Sandy at their roost. An impressive collection turning the far side white but too far for IDs. Needless to say everyone was disappointed that evidently both Yellow-billed Loons had moved on. I had promised Hap Chambers, Roseanne Denton and Dave Roemer I'd send them one of our Yellow-billed Loons to KY. Roseanne called Sunday to thank me as she had just viewed an immature found Saturday afternoon, just a little over 20 miles north of Pace Point in KY. Ask and Ye shall receive........Rarities on Demand. I spent the night up there just to check out other areas to make sure the YBLO were not hiding out some where and did Paris Landing, Eagle Creek, Port Road and Britton Ford. Out from Paris there was a little part of the shoal above the high water and it was covered with Herring Gulls and a slick of Greater, Lesser Scaup, Red-breasted Mergs and a few Goldeneye. There were 27 Common loons in Eagle Creek, 6-7 out from Port Road, about the same from Trailer Road. I did have a loon keep staring up into the sky and finally I found the object of its attention, a single, high flying Great Egret steadily winging its way north on its way to Hap at Blood River. Waterfowl numbers are down at Britton Ford, all the dabblers except for Wigeon and Green-winged Teal have plummeted, divers are still good but again no scoters. No doubt the loons are moving and no telling what might show up in the transition, Pace Point still holds more and maybe better mysteries. At 10 AM I decided to go to Reelfoot. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL'COOT / TLBA Bartlett, TN =================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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================