[TN-Bird] Mottled Ducks; Kentucky Lake 9/24/05

From: <birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 2005 19:02:35 -0500

9/24/05
Kentucky Lake; Henry Co.

This afternoon, while leading a field trip to KY Lake for several members of Clarksville Audubon, I located two Mottled Ducks on the Eagle Creek flats just south of Paris Landing. This area is accessed via Bull Durham Rd (this road isn't marked on DeLorme, but ends at the '2' of the '2142' campground sign shown at Eagle Creek). The birds were initially found at about 2:30 PM , as they were resting with some distant Mallards on grassy flats. These birds eventually flew over to the north side of the bay (giving great looks at the narrow white border to the speculum) where they dabbled with the Mallards. We returned later this afternoon, about 4:30 on our way home from Paris Landing, and the Mottled's had separated from the Mallards and were feeding alone, but in the same area.

I noticed one of these birds 1st, with the overall darker coloration and nice big buffy fringing and chevrons on the feathers, nice buffy face with unmarked throat, black spot at gape, dark tail, and finally a brief look at a stretched wing showing me the narrow white border to the variably blue or green (depending on angle) speculum. I let Don Manning take a look at the bird (he's familiar with them from the Gulf Coast, as well as seeing the 1st state record bird a couple of years ago Jeff found in Memphis) before I commented, at which time he just looked at me and smiled. The 7 of us then went through the various field marks, and I got some very poor photos. During this time, a bird that had been partially blocked came out into clear view, and it was a 2nd Mottled. One of these birds had a brighter bill than the other, but I'm not sure if it was bright enough for an adult male. The bill of the 2nd bird was quite dull, so either a female or young bird. Nice to see these birds have enjoyed a taste of TN outside of the Ensley area!

Other birds seen today included 6 juvenile Sanderling and a juvenile Black-bellied Plover on the flats at the mouth of the Big Sandy River. The lake has risen enough that most of the recent flats were under today. Warblers were pretty scarce, with only Magnolia, Tennessee, Pine, and Common Yellowthroat noted today. The partially cloudy skies let us spot several small parties of migrating Broad-winged Hawks.

The island at Paris Landing was again productive with the Lesser Black-backed, and at least one Laughing Gull. Also, a gorgeous adult male Peregrine was perched on a log on the island, and not causing too much of a fuss among the gulls (though they did give him a pretty wide berth). Pace Point only had a few Caspian and Common Terns among the Ring-billed Gulls. Evidently some people there fishing had displaced most of the birds.

I will post a couple of poor photos of a Mottled later tonight. I also hope to get back over the 1st of the week to check on the birds and hopefully get better photos.

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd

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[TN-Bird] Mottled Ducks; Kentucky Lake 9/24/05

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