D. Holt sighting from Fri., Nov. 21, 2003 Bridgeburner's Blvd., Mosheim, TN (Greene Co., TN) Following a tip from a local hunter, I went to the field between Walmart Distribution Center and Hwy 11E on Bridgeburners Blvd. at about 4:30 pm Friday to see if the three white Snow Geese he saw were still there. The field was flooded and held a large number of Canada Geese, a smattering of Mallards, and the surrounding shore held hundreds of Kildeer. A brief search revealed two "blue" Snow Geese, and to my great delight, four Greater White-fronted Geese. I called Don Miller to come take a look, and while he was enroute I called Wallace Coffey who posted the sighting on the local Bristol-birds listserve in case any other local birders might be in range for a look before dark. From a distance of about 100 yds. with the sun at my back and a 73X Meade ETX-125 telescope, I had great views of the white facial marks, flank lines and tail tips, the irregular black barring on the bellies, the orange legs and bills. Their size was comparable to the Snow Geese. At first they were standing on the shore, so I could see that the outlines of their bellies was what I think of as "lean", not nearly dragging the ground like a Greylag. After a while they entered the water and fed with the rest of the flock. I showed a semi-truck driver what I was looking at while he waited for the time to make his delivery to Walmart. Another local duck hunter stopped and we discussed the birds for a while. At about 5:30, I resumed watching through the scope. I heard the kildeers all suddenly take flight, then saw all the geese in view of my scope look up at once, then take flight. For a split second I wondered what had spooked them, then I heard a noise overhead and looked straight up to see a very large, low-flying USAF cargo airplane with four propellers pass over me from behind. It was going very fast. It trailed four lines of exhaust as it descended, passing over Hwy 11E before going into a steep right bank turn and circling over me and the now airborne flock of waterfowl again. The plane then continued on over the highway as before, descending, but at a much lower rate of speed, and turning right to bring it in line with the airport at Greeneville TN. The geese flew behind the Walmart Distribution Center, but did not stop, exiting west just as Don Miller drove up beside me! I pointed at the departing flock, telling him to look quick. I had to leave after that, but he stayed to look around the area until total dark. He didn't see them then, or the following Saturday. Miller said the water was gone from the field they were in by Saturday. I looked around a little again this afternoon, Mon. Nov. 24. As far as I know, no one else has seen the Greater White-fronted Geese in the area so far. Don Holt Johnson City, 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. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================