[TN-Bird] Scott county, TN- Golden Eagle/Snow Bunting

From: James M Moore <jimimoore@xxxxxxxx>
To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 13:36:43 -0500
Report from Saturday, November 29th,  2003

      A few weeks ago, I "discovered" the Scott County Water Treatment
plant in 
Huntsville, TN. (I say "discovered" since I had been birding the county a
couple years and began  keeping records of this little birded section of
the  Upper Cumberland Region but  had never known this reservoir existed.
)  It is a large body of water with short  grass fields adjacent of apx.
8-10 acres . The entire reservoir/ lake etc is probably  200 acres or
more. 

If interested in finding this reservoir- See Stedman's web page 
  @ - http://iweb.tntech.edu/sstedman/ScottTNPublicAccess.htm
 where he has recently placed directions to this promising location.

    On Saturday, November 29th, Jimi and I and Steve Stedman went to the
reservoir to see what the fast moving cold front had brought in.
Conditions were cold AM/  27 -cloudy with an occasional snow flurry still
around and an extremely light dusting of snow. As we drove into the
impoundment area, Jimi  had no more gotten out of his mouth, "Maybe we
will find and Eagle", that he saw a large dark bird flying just over the
tree tops to the right. I glanced and thought Turkey Vulture as I was
looking through the tree tops as I could see a slight dihedral, but noted
it WAS a very large dark bird.  Stopping quickly and jumping out, the
bird rose above the trees and we knew it was an Eagle. With scopes
quickly pulled out, we had excellent looks at a near adult/adult GOLDEN
EAGLE. We could even see some golden sheen on the back of the head from
time to time as he soared. The head did not project out as far as a Bald
Eagle in flight. There were a few light feathers in the under tail area
only. 
   After scoping the reservoir , we decided to walk in the grassy fields
briefly and again
Jimi had not walked 10 steps when he flushed a SNOW BUNTING. The bird
immediately vocalized, and we could also see it was a very white/light
colored bird, each of us seeing some different field marks well as it
flew away from us
( white "squares" in wings etc.. )  and concluding with the call its
identity as a Snow Bunting. The bird flew out over the reservoir and did
not return. We checked the area again late afternoon at dusk, but it was
not found again.

 We had 61 species for the day -    Other areas of Scott County birded
were:  the airport and Billingsley Farm that has hundreds of acres of
grasslands. Notable here were BREWER'S BLACKBIRDS  several White-Crowned
Sparrows. We also checked many farm fields, the Oneida City Park and a
few other hot spots in the area
seeing a good variety of waterfowl.

LatePost:
  On another  note  On Sat. Nov. 22   David Trently, Ed Manus, Nancy
Moore and myself birded Scott County in many of the above areas. Note
able were: Over 200 American Pipits at the farm/ Hooded Merganser-Horned
Grebe- N, Pintail- Lesser Scaup (the previous 4 mentioned being first
records for Scott County- unless anyone out there has any previous
records of which I would like to know about)
We had 10 species of ducks. A NORTHERN HARRIER was also seen. 


Jimi and Nell Moore
Caryville, TN
Campbell County
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[TN-Bird] Scott county, TN- Golden Eagle/Snow Bunting

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