On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 mgreene@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: ... > So to answer your question - I'm not sure exactly where your grackles go > but my guess would be that they leave your local area to join large flocks > which travel throughout the winter looking for fields to feed in. .... And, as Carole can no doubt attest to, ya' ain't gonna find many open fields in west Knox County these days. A look at the Christmas Bird Count records for the Knoxville CBC reflects that fact. In the 1970's we averaged tens of thousands of grackles, the last few years we've been lucky to get any. In the 1970's it wasn't unusual to get 20-30 Loggerhead Shrikes on the count, now there's only one known territory in the circle, right along the edge of the circle in northern Blount County. Horned Lark and Northern Bobwhite have seen similar declines. Dean Edwards Knoxville, 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 jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================