Rankin Bottoms, Cocke county, 7/24/08, by canoe Douglas Lake elevation: 984.2 We did 2 complete circuits on the water today, one in the early afternoon with a group of young folks from Austin Springs Camp, another, more methodical survey from 4:30 - 6:30. We were fooled by great blue herons a few times, but never saw the reddish egret. Nancy Moore, all the way from the other end of the state, and Ed (I don't want to take a chance on the last name) from Knoxville scoped the area from shore for about 3 hours and also failed to spot the target bird. The last reported sighting was on Sunday, 7/20, first report was for Saturday, 7/12. Quite a few people got to see the reddish egret over the course of a week, and to experience birding at Rankin Bottoms. Shorebird viewing will continue to improve for the next few weeks, as more birds can be expected to stop over, and the mudflat edges will be closer to the access road. It seems like we find a new species for the season, or unusual numbers on every trip. Today we saw our first sanderlings of the year and a new personal high count for solitary sandpipers. Partial list: Great Blue Heron (55) Great egret (82) Double-cr. cormorant (27) Snowy egret Little Blue Heron (4 immature) Black-cr. Night-Heron (5) Osprey (5 - plus 5 in the air over Walters Bridge, & one on the nest) Killdeer (400+) Greater Yellowlegs (2) Lesser Yellowlegs (6) Solitary Sandpiper (9) Spotted Sandpiper (5) Sanderling (2 ) Semipalmated Sandpiper (4) Least Sandpiper (42) Pectoral Sandpiper (32) Short-billed Dowitcher Caspian Tern Photos: Snowy Egret & Ring-Billed Gull- http://www.pbase.com/sylvafoto/ image/100681519 Sanderling- http://www.pbase.com/sylvafoto/image/100681381 Solitary Sandpiper - http://www.pbase.com/sylvafoto/image/100682072 Pectoral Sandpipers -http://www.pbase.com/sylvafoto/image/100682247 Short-billed Dowitcher - http://www.pbase.com/sylvafoto/image/ 100682708 Michael Sledjeski & Leslie Gibbens Dl Rio 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/ MAP RESOURCES Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________