Shady Valley Johnson Co. TN Elev. 2,800 feet 24 Feb. 2003 Monday evening Chris O'Bryan and I birded at the end of the day in Tennessee's highest mountain valley. We had three American Woodcocks and possibly four calling from the ground. At one point three were displaying with their advertising flights and sky singing with their falling-leaf flight. While the species has been known to winter in the valley, it makes one wonder if they did this year with all the snow and freezing weather. Spring is well underway. We had a flock of 1,000 mainly adult Red-winged Blackbirds. This is a new maximum number for that species in Shady. Spotted Salamanders have come to the woodland ponds to breed and Wood Frogs are making noisy with their Mallard-type voices at wet areas. Spring Peepers are out and about at this elevation. Let's go birding... Wallace Coffey Bristol, 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. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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 =========================================================