I ran into Tommy and Virginia Curtis from Carthage at the Shelby Park Short-eared Owl field this evening. With cloudy skies making the visibility a challenge we saw what we thought at first glance was an Owl. It turned out to be an American Bittern that flew in front of us and landed in the tall grass about 100 yards away! I'm not sure how common this bird is in Shelby Park, but it sure surprised the three of us! It took until about 5:25 pm when Tommy spotted the first of 3 Short-eared's flying towards the airport over the treeline!. The other two birds flew together up high towards the Cumberland river past the Gaylord Entertainment offices. The owls were first TN birds for all three of us. Thanks to all for the previous posts and directions. Mike O'Malley Clarksville, 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================