Feb. 13, 2005 Proctor City Road North of Tiptonville West of 78 Highway Lake Co. TN YES! that is plural on both counts, and add Lesser Black-backed GULLS to that. I've been getting some great gulls that are feeding over the waste treatment ponds at the prison in Tiptonville. These gulls rest in a field just north east of the prison when there is water present. Two weeks ago, I had California, Lesser Black-backed and Thayer's but last week there was no water. I was with Clyde Blum and Carol Fegarito from Chattanooga and we had started with a bang on Saturday in Tunica Co. MS with another Ferruginous Hawk at a different location from the bird I found 6 weeks ago. Sunday afternoon, we had THREE Iceland Gulls, TWO Thayer's and TWO Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the huge mix of gulls at this location. Needless to say, we left the area at dusk all grinning and heads spinning. I have photos of all the birds including a few with 2 of the Iceland Gulls standing side by side and I missed a shot when one Iceland was playing tag with one of the Thayer's. All birds were present at one time but usually scattered. One of the Thayer's was so pale that I thought it might be a Kumlien's but after viewing the photos I think it was just a Thayer's but a very different looking Thayer's. There was evidently a male and female (size difference was very evident) both lightly marked and another bird that had course darker markings, all three had white primaries. Both of the Lesser Black-backed Gulls were immature and probably the same two I had 2 weeks ago. Nancy Moore and Betty Sumara got there in time to see the birds before they and a thousand Ring-billed and Herring Gulls promptly left to go to roost at 5 PM. We had some super looks at some special birds on our weekend jaunt from north MS to KY but the Iceland Gulls were the frosting (appropriate term here) on the cake. I'll write up the adventure tomorrow and try to put together the photos for viewing soon. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL'COOT / TLBA Bartlett, 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================