FEELS LIKE GOOD STORM BIRDING.....A FEW POSSIBLE STORM BIRDS The first Black Terns reported at Musick's Campground in more than six weeks came into the Spring Creek Embayment along the Sullivan Co., TN and Washington Co., VA border late Friday (3 Sep 2010). A SSW wind of about 10 mph was flowing into a channel behind the eastward influence of Hurricane Earl as it had passed up the Atlantic. Coupled with a nice front to our west and dropping barometric pressure during the day, conditions for a light rain became right from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. as warmer air moved into the region behind a breezy and cool morning and early afternoon. Rain fell over eastern Sullivan County during that hour. The rain turned serious about 7:45 p.m. at Musick's with a steady win coming up the lake out of Tennessee. I only had my umbrella and no rain coat so I got a good soaking. Almost out of nowhere, 11 Black Terns suddenly fell out of the sky and swept thru the rain, up and down the channel. At the peak of the downpour, as visibility grew more limited and dim, an Osprey arrived and was furiously diving throughout the rain, making at least three drops after fish. It was little more than a silhouette. The rain continued steady until I eventually pulled my car off TN 394 because the wipers could not stay ahead of the runoff. I had headed out just after the first light rains to check Paddle Creek Pond along Paddle Creek Rd. in eastern Sullivan Co., TN. The flats were active but the wind birds scattered briefly as a flock of 18 Blue-winged Teal came quickly over the cornfield and down to the shoreline at the upper end. Otherwise a few shorethings were there: Pectoral Sandpiper 1 Least Sandpiper 3 Solitary Sandpiper 1 Spotted Sandpiper 1 Green Heron 2 Great Blue Heron 1 Great Egret 1 Yesterday's Greater Yellowlegs apparently had moved on. Since the hurricane moved along the Atlantic, it possibly pushed some migrants a little more west. Those of you headed to Rankin Bottoms for the Saturday afternoon field trip, may find a thing or two extra. This is not to say there will be pelagics and such but there is always a chance of something under these conditions. Hurricane Earl was on the brink of diminishing to a tropical storm and was far up the coast and earlier downgraded to a Category 1 storm on Friday. Let's go birding . . . . Wallace Coffey Bristol, TN