2/19/05 Van Works Rd, (5 miles northeast of Tiptonville, off of Hwy 78) Lake Co. All, Jeff Wilson and I combined forces today (helped me a lot, didn't do him much good!), and had a phenomenal day. I am a little pushed for time right now, I will get more details and hopefully a shot or two out soon. This email is just an update on the Gull situation near Reelfoot, after the terrific day Jeff and Co. had last weekend. Jeff and I arrived at Van Works a little after 13:00, and stayed till near dark. On this cloudy day, the gulls again departed for roost at precisely 17:00, just as they had done Sunday. When I was up Monday, there was water everywhere, and birds were scattered out in all directions. Most of this water has dried up, including the spot that they had the Iceland and Thayer's last week. Now, all the birds in this area are concentrated in the still extensive wet area on the south side of Van Works Rd. Birds are trading in and out of here regularly, generally in the direction of the Prison Complex. There is always a mass of gulls around the Prison, but nowhere to really view the birds. Jeff and I spent about 4 hours this afternoon just going back and forth through the gulls, from Van Works Rd. We had a 1st-winter Thayer's right off the bat, as it slept and then traded around some for us. There is a tremendous variety of plumages to go through, with hundreds of birds in front of us all the time, none of the time we spent there was dull, even when none of the rarities were around. Next, Jeff picked up on an adult California, which spent most of its time either sleeping or cleaning. We spent a lot of time with the California, during which a lot of birds had come in from towards the Prison. A scan through the mass of birds finally produced the gorgeous 1st-winter Iceland Gull that I was hoping to see! Shortly after this, another Thayer's was picked out of the crowd (darker than the bird from earlier in the day), and finally a very dark 1st-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull. With the 3 expected species of gull, this gave us 7 species for the day, my best ever in TN. We had at least 2 Thayer's, and possibly 2 Iceland's, but not at the same time. There is some great gulling going on right now at Reelfoot! We had some other neat birds on the day, I'll fill-in details of them shortly. Good birding!! Mike Todd McKenzie, TN Carroll Co. birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx www.pbase.com/mctodd =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================