June 29, 2003 Lauderdale Co. TN While running the back roads south of Open Lake and north of Chisholm Lake, I noticed an all dark bird on the side of the gravel road that appeared to be a cormorant. I went a little ways before my curiosity got to me as it usually does and I turned around and drove back. As I walked up to the bird, I could see it had been dead quite a while and severely dried out and flattened from being run over. At first I was surprised at its size and had hopes it might be a Neotropic, but as I got closer I could see some white on the belly. The legs were more towards the rear of the body than they would be on a cormorant and I then realized the bird was a loon and as I turned it over, recognized it to be a Pacific Loon. It measured about 22 inches total from bill to tail with my tape but was too stiff to completely straighten out. The eye was surrounded by dark feathering including the lores. The demarcation between the dark hind neck and white fore neck, at the side of the throat, was quite defined and straight. A silvery tone could be seen around the nape area. The all dark bill was in pretty bad shape but the lower mandible showed no gonydeal angle and from what I could tell was shaped about the same as the upper. This gives the Pacific's bill the shape of a stiletto like blade. There was no way to tell how the bird had died. The area in which I found the bird was flooded until just recently, so it could have died from natural causes, became trapped in an area to small from which it could take flight or any other number of scenarios. I'm sure it is a first county record but not unique in the area as I found and photographed a molting adult on Mud Lake just to the north in Lake Co. on June 4, 1996. This bird stayed for a week and later that month, near Tiptonville Landing, we found another immature Pacific in a flooded field on June 22, it stayed one day. So this bird fits into a pattern of late occurring migrant Pacific Loons here along the Mississippi River. That year, 1996, just as this year the Mississippi came up very high and water stayed in the fields until July. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL' COOT / TLBA Bartlett Tenn. =================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. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================