April 5, 2008 Davidson Co. TN I'm still having my share of interesting yard birds: a red-breasted nuthatch is still around as of yesterday. And I've had chipping sparrows (2 or 3 at a time) for over a week, some singing, as they pass thru. As I watched a pair of purple finches under the feeder this morning I thought of Christmas bird count a few years when you just about couldn't buy a purple finch. Most years they are not as common as they have been this year. We had one female purple finch in a creek bed by Percy Priest Lake and counted ourselves lucky. But that creek bed was full of trash! Trash had come down the creek out of the neighborhood & washed in from the lake and the total was a river of trash! That pile of trash may not have directly affected that individual bird, but other birds may be directly affected by trash and litter. As you know six-pack holders can get hung around the neck and be fatal to birds and other wildlife. There is a bill in the TN state senate right now which will remove some of this litter, bottles and like containers, by placing a refundable surcharge on drink bottles. If you are interested in this subject please read on. This coming week is critical to movement of this bill, SB1408, this year. It is stalled in one committee un-related to Environment Committee, where it needs to get for proper debate. Please contact me or Bob Hatcher offline for more info on how you can help with the Tennessee Bottle Bill. Info is also at _www.tnbottlebill.org_ (http://www.tnbottlebill.org) Richard Connors Nashville **************Planning your summer road trip? Check out AOL Travel Guides. (http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/united-states?ncid=aoltrv00030000000016) =================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 _____________________________________________________________