[TN-Bird] Pace Point Picken's
- From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 09:20:37 EST
Oct. 26-27, 2002
Pace Point Area
Henry - Benton Co. TN
Hatchie NWR
Heywood Co. TN
Early on Saturday I pulled into New Hope Landing and located a single
Franklin's Gull which would be the only one for the weekend. There was very
little in the way of ducks at the landing. On the way to the refuge I ran up
on 3 different flocks of Wild Turkeys on a back road. They were picking up
run over acorns in the road.
I met up with Mike Todd and we proceeded to the Point. I lucked up on a
single Surf Scoter out feeding by itself. We were to see the bird one more
time from Rocky Point when it picked up and flew skimming the surface and
flew out of sight to the south. We found about 50 Common Loons around the
Point area over the next few hours. The first Horned Grebes of the season,
six birds, were seen around the point. I found a White-winged Scoter in the
Eagle Creek area on Sunday. I finished the weekend with 17 species of
waterfowl, including my first Bufflehead and Goldeneye for the season.
We hooked up with Gary Casey and Jan Shaw and went south to the mud flats at
the end of the Big Sandy reach. Here we found tons of ducks plus a feeding
flock of Ring-billed Gulls but best of all shorebirds. We ended up with
Black-bellied Plover, Semipalmated Plover (23), Killdeer, Lesser Yellowlegs
(4), Greater Yellowlegs (1), Least Sandpiper (100+), Dunlin 1, Pectoral
Sandpiper (2), LB Dowitchers (4) Stilt Sandpiper (2) plus Wilson's Snipe and
Spotted Sandpipers from 2 other locations making it a 12 sps. Wind Bird Day.
Gull species were way down along with their numbers. Out on the shoal at
Paris Landing there were few gulls due to the Peregrine Falcon that tends to
sit on the concrete block in the middle of the bar. One immature Lesser
Black-backed was seen in Eagle Creek but neither adult from last week could
be found. A few Forster's Terns, the single Franklin's, L. Black-backed,
Ring-billed, Herring and Bonaparte's made up the list with a couple of odd
plumaged gulls studied long and hard but no conclusions reached.
We made an attempt at Britton Ford for Sharp-tailed or LeConte's Sparrows but
we were too late for S-T and too early for LeConte's. I did manage 10 sparrow
species over the weekend with my first Fox and White-crowned at Britton Ford
along with Lincoln's and Vesper. The fields of cut corn were still jumping
with Yellow-rumped Warblers and Bluebirds. I had 117 Bluebirds in 3 fields
with uncountable numbers of "butter-butts". Large flocks of Cedar Waxwings
and Goldfinches were also seen in various locations on Sunday. Still need a
Black Scoter for the year............
A stop at Hatchie NWR on the way home late Sunday gave me the opportunity to
take a portrait shot of the 3-4 year old Bald Eagle that has been hanging
around there. It is an impressive shot of the spangled head.
Good Birding!!!
Jeff R. Wilson
OL' COOT / TLBA
Bartlett Tenn.
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