February 19, 2005 [posted February 20] Kinser Park (KP) (at Davy Crockett Lake); Wal-Mart Distribution Center (WMDC) and vicinity (western Greene County) A crow was the best bird of the day. If it hadn't come along when it did, I probably would not have been able to identify the Rough-legged Hawk. At about 2:55 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, February 19, I was driving east on Jim Kirk Road when I noticed a large, dark bird flying in from the fields on the left a considerable distance ahead. (These are the fields that are visible across the railroad track from Wal-Mart Distribution Center.) I stopped on the shoulder of the road to get a better look and realized immediately that my first impression--vulture--had been mistaken. The bird was obviously a Buteo hawk, and its body was obviously all dark or nearly so. At this point, a crow began harassing the hawk, causing it to take evasive action by swerving up and down and banking to change directions. Thanks to this development, I got a solid enough look at the bird to note its black (rather than chocolate brown) body, black wing linings, long wings (longer than those of a Red-tailed Hawk), brilliant white undersides to the primary feathers, and whitish area on the basal portion of the tail. Thus, it fit the description of an adult male dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk. After about a half minute, the hawk disappeared low in an area where the fields are broken by fencerows lined with Eastern Redcedar, American Sycamore, various other trees, and shrubby growth. There are also drainage ditches and small creeks or seeps in this area. This area appears to be an excellent spot for Rough-legged Hawks if they happen to be around. It offers vast open pastures broken by a few trees and fences, and the whole area is adjacent to the cattail marshes at Wal-Mart Distribution Center. In other words, it is about as similar to tundra habitat as a Rough-legged Hawk can find in northeast Tennessee. I am aware of a few reports of Rough-legged Hawks in Greene County in the last ten years or so, but I believe that they were of light-morph birds. I also recall a dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk being reported in Limestone in Washington County last year (by Don Holt, I think) and at least one light-morph bird in Sullivan County in the late 90's. I would appreciate any info that anyone might have on Rough-legs in northeast Tennessee in the last few years. I also found a few other noteworthy birds on the 19th, as follows: American Black Duck (3--2 WMDC, 1 Sapp Road); Northern Shoveler (WMDC); Red-shouldered Hawk (KP); Ring-billed Gull (75+ Fish Hatchery Road (Highway 340)); Eurasian Collared-Dove (2 adjacent to West Greene High School); Pine Warbler (2 KP); Chipping Sparrow (12 KP); Rusty Blackbird (50+ Green Road, many of which were singing). Don Miller Greeneville, TN ************************************************* BRISTOL BIRDS NET LIST Bristol Birds Net Photo Gallery located at: http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jwcoffeyy/album?.dir=/efd5 This is a regional birding list sponsored by the Bristol Bird Club to facilitate communications between birders and bird clubs of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. -------------------------------------------------- You are subscribed to Bristol-Birds. To post to this mailing list, simply send an email to: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send an email to bristol-birds-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the one word 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. -------------------------------------------------- Wallace Coffey, Moderator wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (423)764-****