Jean Alexander and I birded 8:45am - 1:15pm in the Tellico and Choto Wildlife Management Areas east of Vonore. Highlights were Jean's first Tennessee sighting of a Merlin (I got a hug for showing it to her!) single Lesser and Greater yellowlegs, 6 Pectoral sandpipers, great views of a Black-throated green warbler and Yellow-throated vireo, in addition to hearing other B-T greens, Pine, Common yellowthroat. Also saw loads of Yellow-rumped warblers feeding in the flowering trees. We also had numerous Blue-gray gnatcatchers in both areas. We had great numbers of White-throated, Vesper and Savannah sparrows along with some Swamp sparrows in the fields going into Choto WMA. No Purple martins but did get Tree, Rough-winged and Cliff swallows. Heard and saw House wrens in Choto that were newly arrived since Jean's visit there last Friday. On the lake we had 8 different common loons, some Ring-billed gulls and a lone Bonaparte's gull. We had 2 osprey and one immature Bald eagle. It was my first time birding these areas and am looking forward to it again next week. We are going for 100 species then! Warren Bielenberg 2127 Spalding Drive Maryville, TN =================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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================