FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Jan. 1 birding

[James Brooks <comeback@xxxxxxxx>]

Starting New Year's day as a marathon to see how many new annual tics 
can be found has become an annual tradition with me and others.
My first bird of interest was about 2 dozen White-Crowned Sparrows in 
the multiflora rose along Old SR 34 just to the west of Westview School 
in Washington County.
On Keebler Road I ran into Tom McNeil, who hadn't seen any longspurs, 
but said the biggest flock of pipits he'd ever seen just went west. He 
had seen one Northern Harrier, but the Sandhill Crane I saw last week 
standing in the picked corn was gone. Either he finished the corn or the 
weather got cold.
We were joined by Don Miller, Alice Loftin and Linda Northrup, and 
between Don and Tom's superior hearing they located a lone American 
Pipit flying overhead for me.
Don clued me to snipe in the creek south of Tusculum College in Greene 
County, but I did not locate any. There was, however,  a Belted 
Kingfisher on the wire.
Both vulture were beginning to soar as I approached the Wal-Mart ponds 
and security was closed and the parking lot vacant on this holiday. Only 
Mallards and 5 American Coot were in the near pond, but at the far one I 
hit the bonanza, 24 Northern Pintail and 40 Green-winged Teal. While 
going over the teal I saw one without the white blaze in front and which 
I thought had a white bar, which would mark it as a Eurasian Teal, but 
after finishing my pan over the entire flocks I did several return scans 
and could not locate the duck. Something to watch for as this appears to 
be a winter resident flock at least until the ponds freeze.
A pair of Red-tailed Hawks circled and a spooked my first Great Blue 
Heron of 2004 while walking back to the car.
Out by Mohawk I had the first American Kestrel and a nice female 
Northern Harrier harried Song Sparrows quite close to me.
The final birds of the day were the Red-headed and Red.bellied 
Woodpeckers on Green Road.  With 34 species for half a day's birding it 
was a nice start to the year.

James Brooks
Jonesborough, TN

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