east Tennessee, Sevier County Over this past weekend, I was able to spend parts of Saturday and Sunday birding in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Saturday was a bit foggy with an occasional misty rain (with a more steady rain after about 6:00 p.m.) but Sunday was a beautiful sunny day. I'd like to report here two birds of note. 1) On Sunday, we had great looks at a VESPER SPARROW near the Sugarlands Visitor Center (VC). It was feeding on the ground and perching in trees between the VC and the Park Headquarters. I had previously seen a Vesper Sparrow in this area on April 13, 1997 2) On Saturday, a Euphagus blackbird sp. was seen on the NC side of the parking lot at the end of the road to Clingmans Dome. The bird was either a Rusty or a Brewer's Blackbird. It had an obvious pale eye plus the tail and bill were much shorter than a Common Grackle. In the misty rain, it was difficult to determine if the bird had any rusty edgings to its feathers, but we did not see any hint at all of streaking or barring. We also could not see any glossy reflections in the head or neck area, but it appeared solid black. On Sunday I was back in that area with another birder when I heard a blackbird approaching (I don't know how to distinguish a Rusty from a Brewer's by call note) and hoped it might be the one from Saturday. The weather was very different on Sunday, with the sun shining brightly behind us as the bird flew past. I first noted the pale eye and short tail and then the reflection of iridescent blues/purples off the head and neck. Again, there was no sign of any streaking or barring - no rusty coloration at all. The bird landed in the top of a tree (too far away for a photo, but close enough to give decent looks). I was still able to see the glossy colors in the head feathers, and no rusty feather edging at all. We determined this to be a male BREWER'S BLACKBIRD. It was seen flying from the NC side to Tennessee (we used a GPS device to help us decide where it was seen). Finally...there were at least 5 YELLOW-THROATED WARBLERs singing around the Sugarlands VC, plus a few BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLERs and 2 LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSHes. No Northern Parulas were found either day. A good number of BLUE-HEADED VIREOs were throughout the area. A BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER was seen near the Oconaluftee Visitor Center in NC. A single RUFFED GROUSE was feeding, in the rain, along the Clingmans Dome Road on Saturday evening. David Trently Avian Pursuits Nature Tours Knoxville, TN =================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. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ 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 ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________