5/31/04 Weakley/Henry Co. Today, while Don Manning and I ran a BBS route just north of McKenzie, we had a great day for Lark Sparrows (by west TN standards anyway). I haven't been out much in the field this spring, but was starting to wonder about the Lark's because the few times I have been through some of their usual haunts, I was unsuccessful. Don had a Lark Sparrow back in April, and also a few days ago another one in regular locations for these birds near his house in Henry Co. Today, on the 49th of the 50 stops, at a spot we had a Lark Sparrow 3 years ago, we had FOUR adult Lark Sparrows in a large cultivated area of beans on one side of the road, and wheat on the other. Typically, we always get these birds around corn fields, or so we thought. Evidently, these 4 birds were 2 pairs, as 2 males were singing on different ends of the field. As is somewhat typical of these birds, on the way back out just a few minutes later, none of the four could be found. I'm sure that a few minutes of listening would have turned up one of the singing birds though. Other than that the BBS was pretty standard. On the way home, we happened to go through the area that I have had Larks most regularly the last couple of years, and where most of my decent photos were taken last year. Going through here we also had a Lark Sparrow at two different locations, (back in the usual corn field edge habitat) for a total of SIX Lark Sparrows on the morning. One of these last two birds was also singing. Definitely the most of this species that either of us had seen in a day in TN. I'm sure some of the more traditional spots in Middle TN would produce similar, if not greater, numbers though. On another note, unfortunately the Henslow's Sparrow habitat hasn't come back yet after being bushhogged late last year. Good birding!! Mike Todd McKenzie, TN Carroll Co. birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx www.pbase.com/mctodd PS- If anybody happened to be in this area (doubtful) and wants to know some of the Lark Sparrow locations just let me know. =================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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================