August 28, 2004 Ensley Bottoms-TVA Lake Shelby Co. TN You know how much I like unsettled weather, well today was almost perfect. After studying and photographing some great Wind Birds, Mike Todd and I were searching the fields for Buff-breasted when a heavy rain hit. I headed up to TVA Lake to check it out. Mike had been by there earlier and reported a single Shoveler Duck so we were surprised by a good sized flock sitting way out in the shallow water. Before I could stop, Mike said there was either a Black Duck or a Mottled Duck in the group. We quickly relocated the darker duck that had eased into the mix and was sleeping with its head tucked and we could see only its breast. My first thought was that it was just a wet Mallard but it raised its head and there was the black spot on the bill at the gape. We watched the bird for about 45 minutes before it left with a flight that moved north toward McKellar Lake. Where the lake had held only a single Shoveler earlier, we ended up with 72 Mallards, 4 Wood Ducks, 6 Blue-winged Teal, 4 Least Terns and 7 Black Terns. I have photos of the Mottled Duck at: http://www.pbase.com/ol_coot/ Go to the last album and click on the thumbnails for larger images and text on ID. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL'COOT / TLBA Bartlett, TN =================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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================