June 15-16, 2002 McNairy, Hardin Stewart, Montgomery Wilson and Rutherford Co. I decided to take the weekend and fill in some of the blanks on my TN year list. The first stop early Saturday was an area of pines just inside McNairy Co. near Big Hill Pond. As the clear cutters have done in recent years in some areas, they leave a veil of trees along the highways. Through the tall near trees I caught a glimpse of a likely stand of young pines. Up close, the trees and amount of undergrowth looked just right for Bachman's Sparrow. Immediately I had multiple Chats singing all around and shortly thereafter a Prairie Warbler posed for a photo, that was the next to the last regular warbler I needed for my year list. After walking the road, I decided I needed to view the slope just to the north so off the road and into the pines until I finally located a good viewing spot. Watching the hill side for movement produced more Chats, Prairies, Indigo, lots of Field Sparrows and finally a larger sparrow in the distance singing from the top of a pine but too far for my ears. I swung the new scope into action and found my first Bachman's for the year. Two down and three target birds to go. I located another likely area east of Big Hill Pond and found the same compliment of birds with another Bachman's carrying food. After driving Wolf Pen Road and finding the growth below all the pine stands much to dense for Bachman's habitat I decided to search the area farther east around Pickwick Lake where I use to get my yearly Bachman's. I ran the habitat on both sides of the Lake and found no suitable areas. Now I had to head north to meet Chris Sloan and Jay Desgrosellier for a chance at Henslow's Sparrow. They had started their day in Memphis also filling in year birds and trying for a few of the recent rarities and continued on up through the Reelfoot area. I passed through the length of Cross Creeks NWR without seeing a single duck and only one Great Egret but did have one fly over Bald Eagle. We met in the late evening and Chris soon had us surrounded by singing, teed up Henslow's. A year bird for me and Jay's second lifer for the day as the Painted Bunting had cooperated at Ensley earlier. I got a pretty good photo with just the head and breast filling the frame. We talked about what we had seen during the day and traded info as the sun set with a Blue Grosbeak singing from a nearby perch. The next morning I was again in the hunting mode, trying for Terry Whit's Bewick's Wrens south of Cedars of Lebanon State Park but in Rutherford Co. After an hour of stopping listening and searching I finally hunkered in at the junction of Alsup Hill and Rocky Hill and waited. This had been the favored place and it certainly had a lot of bird activity. I watched a group of Chickadees feeding in the two large cedar trees at this corner and finally noticed a bird flitting around in the lower part of these dense trees. It looked like a wren and acted like a wren but I could not get it to tarry long in one place. It finally made its way to the outside and posed in the early morning sun. It twitched, bobbed and swung its long white spotted tail in circles before diving back into the cedar tree. Now one more bird to go. I started to search all the old locations that I had found Lark Sparrows in since Ruth Luckado had directed us in 1990. It had been a few years since I had been back to the locations and much had changed. I roamed wider and wider circles but no Lark Sparrows. I did have a pair of Eurasian Collared-Doves in Walterhill at the junction of 266 and 231. I headed back to the wren area as Jay had said some Lark Sparrows had been seen in that area. Finally on Rocky Hill Road just south of the wren location I found 3 Lark Sparrows feeding off a fence around a cemetery set back off the west side of the road. Now I could head home with TN bird number 265 for 2002 checked off the list. I can give exact locations for these birds if you are interested or share the photos of the Prairie Warbler and Henslow's Sparrow, just drop me a line. Five for five and still TLBA but it took 750 miles of roadway to stay lucky............ Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL' COOT / TLBA Bartlett Tenn. =================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. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================