TN Birders - Yesterday morning I, along with two other birders, went to Standifer Gap Marsh in Chattanooga, Hamilton county. It was a great morning. There were over a dozen Sedge Wrens seen with one Marsh Wren. There are usually more Marsh Wrens with Sedge Wrens being harder to find (for me). There were at least seven Virginia Rails seen - with many more being heard. While I had seen four Vesper Sparrows and one Lincoln Sparrow on Sunday morning - neither of these sparrows were seen yesterday. About 9:30 a.m. as I was walking down one of the paths into the marsh (near what some of us call the sparrow ditch) a little tiny dark rail took one second to cross the small path in front of me. No one else saw it. About 10:00 a.m. farther up the marsh - I was on a larger trail into the marshy area (quite close to the south end of the marsh). I was talking by phone to a Chattanooga birder about the possibility of young Soras or Virginia rails still being black and tiny. While on the phone another tiny very dark rail ran across the opening. The opening here was much wider and it was in the opening about two to three seconds. Both Betty Wampler and I saw the bird. I did not notice any markings. As I said it TINY. I did not notice any rufous on the neck. The bird just gave the appearance of being totally black. Kevin Calhoon and Libby Wolfe both came out and met us in the afternoon. There was no sign of a Black Rail. Libby and Kevin saw one Virginia Rail (I saw movement in the cattails). We heard one Sora. At one point Libby heard a ki - ki - du call that the BLRA makes. We had been playing the call. However at that time both my mp3 player and the speaker were OFF. She heard it only briefly - and not close by. A wonderfully exciting day. Carol Fegarido Chattanooga Hamilton county =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the count 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 _____________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp _____________________________________________________________