Radnor Lake State Natural Area Davidson Co. Nashville, TN Tues. 18 May 7-9 am I walked along the Lake Trail from the west parking lot to Long Bridge, listening for CONNECTICUT and MOURNING WARBLERs. Instead, at the artist and teacher bench I heard and saw a male and female NORTHERN PARULA. As I continued to Long Bridge, I met a birder from Delaware who was in town at Opryland for a meeting. He complimented the TOS web site and said that he had been to Shelby Bottoms yesterday looking for a CONNECTICUT WARBLER, since they are very rare migrants in his home area. With no luck there, he had tried Radnor today and already had been to Long Bridge. When I met him he was headed back to the dam without finding one this morning. His timing could not have been worse! I continued in the opposite direction toward Long Bridge and as soon as I approached the rail fence before the bench I heard a partial call. I hurried back toward the dam, but the Delaware birder, perhaps late for his meeting, had beaten a hasty retreat. I returned to the thick brush pile and had the invisible male CONNECTICUT WARBLER calling from 10 feet away. He was so close that I could hear his soft secondary song at the end of his loud proclamation. I sat down on the edge of the trail to wait. After tantalizing me for 5 minutes or more, he popped out the back chasing a female INDIGO BUNTING that had had the audacity to infringe on his singing soap box. My first view of the year was a stunner, and his bold eyering made all 11 hairs atop my head stand at attention. The pair of NORTHERN PARULAs that I had seen earlier arrived in the area. The male N. PARULA sang. Suddenly the male CONNECTICUT WARBLER exited the brush pile, chasing the female N. PARULA, and I had great looks at both in the same binocular view, just a few feet above the ground. Again Mr. CONNECTICUT's adopted territory had been invaded, and he brooked no competition. Afte perhaps 30 minutes of listening and watching, I sat down on the bench at Long Bridge and watched the CONNECTICUT forage in the open, just a few inches above the ground. This morning was decadent birding at its best! -- Frank Fekel Tennessee State University Center of Excellence in Information Systems 330 10th Avenue North Nashville, TN 37221 USA =================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 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================