While traveling the backroads from Polk County to a meeting in Birchwood on Tuesday 20 March 2009 I spotted two adult Whooping Cranes in Bradley County. The birds were on Refuge property less than 100 feet from the roadway. While wathching the birds from my truck at a respectiful distance the passing traffic did not seem to notice the Whoopers. On my return trip a couple of hours later the birds were no where to be found in the area. While cruising the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge on Saturday 17 March and today 21 March we had a few thousand Sandhill Cranes at Hiwassee Island. I estamated the cranes today to be 3000-4000 birds a few more than Saturday's number. Todays Sandhills were observed about 2:00 p.m. Other highlights included 15-20 adult and immature Bald Eagles, thousands of waterfowl, 99% of these appeared to be Mallards, 15 Dunlin and 100+ Bonaparte's Gulls. Even with the cold temps we had plenty of birds and sunshine a great day on the river. Rick Houlk Blue Moon Cruises Ocoee, TN 423.309.8524 _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live? Hotmail®?more than just e-mail. http://windowslive.com/howitworks?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_hm_justgotbetter_howitworks_012009 =================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 _____________________________________________________________