Nov. 22-23-24, 2002 Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge - Lauderdale Co. TN Reelfoot Area - Dyer, Lake and Obion Co. TN Pace Point area - Henry and Benton Co. TN Lake #9 - Fulton Co. KY In a quest to find another bird or birds to add to my TN year list, I covered a few areas and found a lot of winter birds had moved in during the previous week. I did sneak out of the state (just a half mile) to view the nice little and cooperative Common Ground-Dove that Hap Chambers and Roseanna Denton found at Lake # 9 in Kentucky. Try as I might I could not shoo the bird into Tennessee after everyone left. ;o) Friday afternoon, I ran out of light before I could look over all of the horde of ducks at Lauderdale. No swans or geese were to be seen among the 14 species of waterfowl seen just at dusk. Early the next morning while riding the levee I had a Coyote, Skunk, Red Fox and a Bobcat cross the road in front of my car. It seemed everything was moving including a family group of Western Meadowlarks that flushed from the roadside and into a tree. They were pale as ghosts in the bright morning sun; my first for the season. Lapland Longspurs were seen in fairly large groups in two locations. Arriving at the Smith's Longspur field I found some guys running their Beagle Hounds. I parked and watched as sparrow after sparrow was flushed. After 45 minutes I saw 4 birds fly in from the south and start the circling flight and gyrations so indicative of Smith's Longspur. I was able to see a male quite well as it circled near but they never set down and returned to the harvested fields across the road to the south. I think these birds are probably just coming into feed in the short Aristida grass and roosting in the open scrubby fields. They just do not like the tall grass surrounding the sparse Aristida that leaves them vulnerable to a sneak attack. If they had only waited a little longer to cut the grass in the field, I feel like we would have had more of these birds again hanging in this field but it is early in the season yet. I found a dark morph Rough-legged Hawk in the block of land northeast of the Phillippy Unit at Black Bayou. This maybe the same bird that hunted in the area last year. It was a beauty hovering in the morning sun. A trip around the lake indicated a lot of birds had arrived but the white capping waves and limited access for viewing left few species IDed. I did see a few Greater White-fronted Geese and strings of Snow Geese heading south into the wind. Lots of Bald Eagles floated, rock solid in the wind above the lake and an unprecedented number of both vultures were seen ketteling in the area. At Port Road overlook, I had about 90 Common Loons and added another 100+ from Trailer Road but no Pacific or Red-throated. Both adult, Lesser Black-backed Gulls came to roost at dusk along with multi-thousands of Bonaparte's Gulls that started into the area from the north and continued well after the sun went down. Sunday, I never saw these adults but did find one Lesser Black-backed immature. Even larger numbers than ever of Horned Grebes were seen and big pods of Pied were also very numerous. The area produced 22 species of waterfowl with a very sparse number of geese but huge flotillas of divers. Still looking for Great Black-backed Gull, Red-necked Grebe or Tundra Swan. The Smith's Longspurs were a welcomed addition to the year list that I thought I might have missed and this coming week is my favorite time to search out a Snow Bunting, maybe Thanksgiving Day will do the trick again. Anyhow the winter birds are in............... 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 =========================================================