Thanks to my wife having work to do in the area and having a room at the Paris Landing hotel, I got to hit this area on back-to-back days. Visibility was hampered by rain and fog, and though I found many gulls my totals were in the 1000's range, not the 10,000s range like Mike Todd reported last week. I also wasn't able to track down his Iceland Gull, but I did find a first winter Lesser Black-backed Gull on 2/12 at Pace Point. I suspect this may be the same bird that has been seen there multiple times since October, it seems to be present about 50% of the time. So, anyone who still needs a life or State LBBG... Some general notes: Geese -- Good numbers of Canadas and about 40 Greater White-fronted Geese in the Britton Ford area; no Snows, Cacklers, or mysterious small Canadas. Puddle ducks -- huge numbers around Britton Ford, heavily dominated by Mallards but a mixture of other species. Diving ducks -- large rafts shifting around. 1000s of scaup well out on the lake, including a few Greaters close enough in to ID from Paris Landing. A huge raft of Canvasbacks (about 1500) was visible from the bay north of the observation tower at Britton Ford on Feb 12, but I only found a few scattered ones today. As Mike reported last week, Common Goldeneye and Red-breasted Mergansers were at Pace Point in large numbers, displaying away vigorously. Goldeneye were also at paris Landing by the 100's. Loons -- very few, and these all Commons. Visibility was probably a factor here. Gulls -- as Mike noted, the vast majority were adult Ring-billed Gulls, with a smattering of Herrings and some Bonaparte's (plus the LBBG) at Pace Point. Terns -- three Forster's Terns flew by Pace Point today (2/13) Blackbirds -- an enormous flock at Britton Ford refused to yield anything other than Common Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds, and a few Brown-headed Cowbirds on either day. There was one albinistic grackle with white outer tail feathers and several white primaries in each wing; fortunately when I first saw it it was at very close range so there was no opportunity to be startled and wonder what on earth it was! And on a side note -- today was the first day I have spent in this area without adding a single species to my nascent State list! Bill Pulliam Hohenwald TN =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ 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 ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________