[TN-Bird] Pace Point area 3/19/04

From: "Todd, Michael C." <michael.c.todd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 13:28:15 -0600
3/19/04
Pace Point area (including Britton Ford, Paris Landing, and Port Rd.)
Henry Co.
Jeff Wilson, Mark Greene, and myself all were free Friday, so we decided to
get out and see what's about. (We may have to drag Mark out a little more
often!:')  We started the day at the Big Sandy Unit of TNWR (Pace Point).
Ducks have largely moved out, but we still had 18 species of waterfowl,
including a few Redheads, and good numbers of Greater Scaup remaining. The
area around Paris Landing State Park is teeming with Scaup, and lots of
ducks in general. We had mind-blowingly close looks at Red-breasted
Mergansers from Paris Landing State Park. The bay at Britton Ford is open to
boats now, so the ducks have gone, except for a few Ruddies, and a couple of
Buffleheads and Scaup.

We didn't have any luck early in the day with unusual loons from Pace Point.
We were at Paris Landing later in the afternoon, and had nice leisurely
views of a winter-plumage adult Red-throated Loon. We even got to enjoy the
bird in flight, as it demonstrated its distinctive head-bobbing flight. This
was the 1st time Mark or I had seen a Red-throated in flight, but even from
long-range it was apparent what it was. We later went to Port Rd. where we
refound the Red-throated and also watched a Pacific steam into the roost
area. There are still a lot of loons in the area, but we had no luck with a
Yellow-billed. Now, all of a sudden, we feel slighted with ONLY 3 species of
loons!

Probably the best birds of the day were came upon by accident while kicking
up LeConte's Sparrows below the maintenance shed area on the refuge. We had
flushed at least 5 LeConte's, when Jeff jumped a darker bird that didn't act
like LeConte's do. The 3 of us followed at least 3 of these birds over the
field, which unlike LeConte's would actually get up and fly a little ways,
instead of just skimming over the top of the grass for a few feet. Jeff
finally got a quick look at one of the birds perched, and they were Nelson's
Sharp-tails. This is the 1st time any of us have had these birds in the
spring, and appears to be pretty early for these birds. But, migration
lately has been taking a different pace than in years past it seems. Also
flushed was a Marsh Wren. We had at least 3 LeConte's in another field on
the refuge.

Among other highlights of the day, the nice adult Peregrine was again
perched on the little island out from Paris Landing, the King surveying his
kingdom! Several Osprey's were working nests in the area. White Pelicans
were seen a few areas. The only migrant shorebirds were 3 Greater Yellowlegs
working the Big Sandy flats, with several Snipe flushed while we were
working Sparrows.  The only warblers we found were Yellow-rumps, singing
Pines everywhere, and a single singing Louisiana Waterthrush, that didn't
quite have its song fine-tuned yet.

Good birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
Carroll Co.
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (home)
michael.c.todd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  (work)
www.pbase.com/mctodd  (website)

PS- I've posted a couple of very distant shots of the Red-throated Loon,
which was near a mile away when I photographed it. It is useful only from
the standpoint of what you're looking for at long-range on these birds. The
link is: http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/redthroated_loon. This gallery in
particular is best viewed at 800x600 screen size.


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[TN-Bird] Pace Point area 3/19/04

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