Jan. 24, 2004 Pickwick area - Hardin Co. TN Saturday morning, I checked the water hole just west of Savannah off 64 Highway and found gulls still dropping in. There were 1st, 2nd, 3rd year and adult Herring Gulls in the mix, which made for a nice study. At that time there were no Bonaparte's only a large number of Ring-billed to shuffle through. If they are hunting from the duck blind there is no use spending any time at this location as there will be no gulls at all. Steve McConnell came up Sunday and there were hunters and no gulls, the same experience I had one day last week. I went south to Pickwick Dam only to find very few gulls and no ducks on the lake just large black patches of Coots. A couple of adult Bald Eagles and 32 Common Loons made the list at Bruton Branch State Park but found nothing else of interest. There are still a whole lot of Pied-billed Grebes and a dozen or so Horned Grebes. I made my way back north through the Savannah Bottoms with a few Vesper Sparrows the only highlight. Back at the Highway 64 water hole at noon, there was a large group of Ring-bills and a few Bonaparte's plus a 2nd year Lesser Black-backed Gull along with a few immature Herring. At 1:01 PM, I noticed a dark gull coming in from the north and as it circled I noted the coloration and wing pattern of the immature Thayer's. This bird must move north from the dam with maybe a brief morning stop before leaving to go north and the return in the afternoon to bathe, preen and sleep before heading to roost above the dam. After spending another hour watching the bird splashing about, preening and then watching it go to sleep, I headed north to the Pace Point area. 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================