Sept. 5,2004 Ensley Bottoms Shelby County I spent 6 hours with Jeff Wilson, aka Ol' Coot, at the Ensley Bottoms. As he has already so eloquently detailed what we saw I will only add a few items that impressed me. 1. Thousands of shorebirds. I lead a Chattanooga Chapter field trip to Kingston Steam Plant the week before and saw only about 15 individuals of on 4 species. 2. That some of the birds were so close you could study individual feathers with your binoculars. If you thought you "had to have" a scope to study shore birds, not here. A scope is needed to see the distant birds, but many could be identified without. The way the roads go around the pools you can drive right up to the birds. Unlike Kingston, where I logged 2.5 miles on my pedometer. Also Kingston is an afternoon hike because the orientation of the sun to the birds, which translates HOT! 3. The variation in plumages of the same species, adult, immature, molting individuals. 4. Eight Baird's Sandpipers in one day, Seven in one pond as we scanned thru the mix. 5. Mottled Duck In Tennessee. 6. Jeff's knowledge of his "Wind Birds", and his willingness to share this knowledge to all who are interested. Clyde Blum Signal Mountain, Tn (near Chattanooga) Sequatchie Co. =================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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================