I checked the standard Short-eared Owl site in southern Cumberland County again this evening and was treated to a Rough-legged Hawk (about 150 west of the usual hill top at Shadow Mt. Estates just south of Hillendale Rd.). I had a look at this dark bird perched on a fence post for about a minute and for another minute as it flew north across Hillendale Rd. (not to be seen again). In checking all of my field guides, I note that there's tremendous variation in plumages. Initially, I considered it a dark phase bird, but now I'm unsure of the criteria. While perched, this bird looked most like Sibley's (large guide) dark phase juvenile, though it was a bit lighter on the chest. In flight it looked most like Sibley's dark adult below, but it had much white on the upper tail with a solid black terminal band (similar to his light adult female but with more white on the tail--Sibley shows only dark upper tails on his dark phase illustrations). That was at 5:20 PM CST (sunset at 5:37 CST). At 5:35 PM the first Short-eared Owl showed up. It and another one flew around (once within 15 feet of me!) in and out of sight for the next 10 minutes or so before I lost track of them. At 6 PM, 2 American Woodcocks started displaying from the field. No harriers were found this evening. The owls were first found here on this extensive area of short grass fields on Dec. 25, 2008 (2 seen). I've seen them on 9/9 additional times this winter (1 bird seen five times, 2 birds three more times, 3 birds one time). Because of the numerous ridges, they can be a challenge to keep track of and harder to count. The exact location is at the northernmost hill top in Shadow Mountain Estates which is off Dunbar Rd. 0.7 miles south of the intersection of Dunbar and Hillendale Rds. The owls are showing up in all directions around this site (previously they were most easily seen to the north toward Hillendale Rd). I strongly suspect that Short-eared Owls are quite local in this part of Tennessee. Steve Stedman and I have tried in a number of other likely large open areas at dusk this winter without success (e.g., Ninemile in Bledsoe Co., Bridgestone-Firestone Centennial Wilderness in White Co., northern Macon Co. near Rt. 10, and a couple of areas in southern Fentress Co.). Ed LeGrand Cumberland Co. =================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 _____________________________________________________________