The annual Least Tern Survey of the Mississippi River sponsored by the Corps of Engineers and conducted by Ken Jones was held in July. It began at Cape Girardeau on July 22 and came down the Mississippi to Baton Rouge, La. ending there on July 28. The total count was 11,000 birds compared to 8,000 birds last year. The increase in the count may mean a higher population but it also may be partially attributed to the experience of Ken and his group at conducting the survey. This is the eighth year he has conducted it. On the 22nd the survey went from Cape Girardeau to Dyersburg. I had planned to be on this part of it but had to make a flight. Ken along with John Rumancik and a few others in the group saw a Black Skimmer at mile 884 in the Kentucky Bend. This is on the Kentucky Bar almost opposite the smoke stack at the New Madrid power plant. There were pictures taken and Ken is going to get them shortly. If they are good enough quality they may provide enough documentation for a Kentucky record. Ken Leggett Dyersburg, TN Dyer County =================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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================