[TN-Bird] Snow Bunting still present; Obion Co

1/28/09
Obion Co
Mt. Zion Rd just north of where it crosses Perry Browder Rd DeLorme page 48, 
section A1)
yahoo map with center point at location:
http://maps.yahoo.com/;_ylc=X3oDMTExNmIycG51BF9TAzI3MTYxNDkEc2VjA2ZwLWJ1dHRvbgRzbGsDbGluaw--#mvt=m&lat=36.467347&lon=-89.07534&zoom=15

I arrived at the location Mark had seen the Snow Bunting this morning at 
about 12:45 this afternoon. I immediately saw the large red shed, though no 
birds were in the road (not that lucky). But, as I slowly pulled past, there 
were a lot of Horned Larks and a few Laps working the east side of the road 
just past the barn. As I stopped, everything flushed, and in the middle of 
the group was the Snow Bunting. The birds all flew over Mt. Zion Rd and went 
out in the field to the west, to a flat-like area in it. I lost the Bunting 
when they went down.

There isn't a good place to get off the road here (especially with the 
shoulders being iced up today), so I just had to drive thru and stop to scan 
the birds until a car came, then go on, turn around and try again. I spent 
about another hour in the area, and never had a large group of birds come 
back to the shed area. I would have maybe a dozen birds at a time, but the 
Bunting never did come back. I did see a flash of white well off in the 
field to the west once as a large group of birds was buzzing around, that 
I'm sure was the Snow Bunting, but I just couldn't get any detail on it.

As Michael mentioned, there have been several Snow Buntings in KY today, so 
maybe this won't be the only one found in TN right now. I definitely owe 
Mark one, I've been looking for that bird on my TN list for a long time 
now!! Feels good to get a State bird out of the way this early in the year!

If anyone is interested, I've added a distant pic (nothing like some of the 
other pics previously posted) of the Snowy Owl to my winter 2008-2009 
gallery here:
http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/108633344

And, I've added a gallery of shots of Smith's Longspurs (flight shots) and a 
Sprague's Pipit (flight and on ground) from Stuttgart Airport from my trip 
home from TX last week.

http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/stuttgart_ar_airport_birding , or the 1st shot 
starts here: http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/108633759

I hope to get some of the many pix I took in TX posted soon as well.

Good Birding!!

Mike Todd
McKenzie, TN
birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.pbase.com/mctodd


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