I went to Cherokee dam this morning and refound the 5 Long-tailed Ducks rather quickly in the water in front of the picnic area. They swam very close to shore so I was able to get great Scope views. This was a life bird for me so thanks to all who reported it and kept checking on it this week! I did not see any Scoters or Red-Breasted Mergansers, but I was in a little bit of a hurry so they may have been there. I made a quick stop by Douglas Dam on the way home to see if anything was around. I had 5 Red-breasted Mergansers, 50 Horned Grebes, and large numbers of gulls. There was also a Common Loon that was calling, but I never got to see it. Kevin Burke Sevierville, TN From: tn-bird-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:tn-bird-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Ron Hoff Sent: Saturday, February 01, 2014 7:11 PM To: TN-bird Subject: [TN-Bird] Cherokee Dam area - still great birds TN-birders, Dollyann & I joined Frank Bills and Sharon Bostick on a trip out to Cherokee Dam, on the border of Jefferson and Grainger counties, this morning to see if the White-winged Scoters, Long-tailed Ducks, and Red-breasted Mergansers that Dollyann & I found Thursday were still around. They were. We got there around 9:30 am and found 11 White-winged Scoters way out in the middle of the lake, mixed in with a large flotilla of gulls. We did not see the Long-tailed Ducks or the RB Mergansers immediately. Our viewing was done from the end parking lot on the south side of the dam, and from the middle of the causeway going out to the parking lot. While we were at the parking lot, Dollyann spotted the Long-tailed Ducks flying by, heading to where we saw them from the middle of the causeway on Thursday. We went back over there, expecting to find them in that area, but there was a fishing boat there and it must have caused them to keep flying. We eventually found them a long ways off in a cove more to the south. It was a view at 60x in the scope, but at least we re-found them. Today there were 5, where on Thursday we only had 4. While we were at the dam, we met a nice couple who were birding there also, John and Theresa O’Barr. They followed us over to the Cherokee Dam Grainger Co. boat launch, which is the road down to the lake on the north side of the dam. This is off highway 375, just past the north end of the dam. Birds were few here, but while we were here, we picked up a flock flying towards us and it turned out to be 11 Red-breasted Mergansers. On Thursday, we only had 6. John & Theresa had told us about some White-winged Scoters in west Knoxville at a subdivision called Jefferson Park, in Knox Co., so we decided that on the way home, we would check it out. Good move. We found 3 adult male White-winged Scoters in an area of open water (the rest of the water here was still frozen). This subdivision is on the right side of the road about 0.5 miles past the park called “The Cove”, which is the small park just west of the sailboat marina on Northshore Dr. (which is about a mile west of the Concord roundabout). The entrance to the subdivision is just before the YMCA. Go in and drive straight up and over the hill until you come to a lane on the right called Charlottesville Blvd. Go right here to the end. There is a home under construction and we parked here and found the birds on the lake. Great looks at the scoters. Thanks to John & Theresa for the tip. WARNING – the ice here will melt very soon, and the scoters are likely to move on. If you want to see these birds, I suggest going first thing Sunday morning. Great day to be out and about. But then again you can say that about any day birding! Great birding, Ron Hoff & Dollyann Myers Clinton, TN