[TN-Bird] C Merganser... again! - Knox

  • From: K Dean EDWARDS <kde@xxxxxxx>
  • To: Tennessee Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 2 May 2008 09:33:53 -0400 (EDT)

As ridiculous as it sounds, I had a male COMMON MERGANSER fly over
the yard this morning... and this wasn't the first time!

On 22 April 2006, I had 2 male Common Mergansers flying over our
yard in West Knox Co heading north along Black Oak Ridge about
20 ft above tree level.  Today, (2 May 2008), a single male Common
Merganser was spotted around 7:50AM making an almost identical
track up the ridge, at about the same altitude.

I had a brief view of the bird today.  It was immediately clear
that it was a merganser so I was able to focus on the head, neck
and breast.  From below, the bird had entirely white underparts
(including the breast and flanks which rules out Red-breasted
and the much smaller Hooded Mergansers) except for a small dark
head and darker grey on the flight feathers and wing edges.  The
dark on the head was very limited and there was no dark marking on
the neck or breast.  Other features:  long neck with small head,
relatively long pointed wings, short tail (i.e., not like a
cormorant).

So I've now seen 4 Common Mergansers in Knox Co and 3 were flying
over our yard (the other was also a male on Ft Loudon Lake across
from the main UT campus in the late 1980s... don't have the
exact date handy at the moment, it's in another set of records).

Anyway, some other yard highlights this morning:

E Wood-Pewee
BLACKPOLL, 1 male, FOS
American Redstart, 1 male
"Myrtle" Yellow-rumped Warbler, about 5
Scarlet Tanager, at least 1
Baltimore Oriole, 1 male

Dean Edwards
Knoxville, TN


=================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/

                  EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com

_____________________________________________________________


Other related posts:

  • » [TN-Bird] C Merganser... again! - Knox