12/19/08 Arnold field (Lauderdale Co) Black Bayou (Lake Co) Sorry for the late notice about these birds, but I had a flyover Smith's Longspur today at Arnold Field outside Halls today. I heard the bird rattle two times as it came over. Sounded like it was traveling to the north. I tried a decent looking field nearby, with no luck. Several small groups of Laps and Horned Larks were heading in this same direction. There are easily 5000 Longspurs working the rice fields at Black Bayou. I sat and watched and listened to Lapland Longspurs for about 45 minutes when I heard a Chestnut-collared Longspur in amongst 1000 or so Laps working all around me. The 'cheeedle cheeedle it' call was very distinct. I did not see the bird though. I called Jeff, and the others in the area as a heads-up. Birds thinned out a bit and I went to a different area down the road. Jeff got there shortly afterwards, and went to the same spot I had been. Within a few minutes, not knowing he was in the same spot I had been, he heard a Chestnut-collared come right over him. Jeff was scoping thru the numerous Laps, and found a male Chestnut-collared. Birds were very flight today, usually only on the ground for a minute or two. I got there within 5 minutes, with our Nashville CBC crew in tow. We spent another 30-45 minutes without hearing the bird again. Jeff thinks there were probably at least 2 Chestnut-collareds in this massive flock. When I heard it come over, and when Jeff had it, it had come from the Black Bayou area, over Donald Rd, which is where we were, to the rice fields just to the north. At times Longspurs were within 20 yards of the road. We will definitely be covering this area well on the CBC tomorrow. Also in this area were 6 Western Meadowlarks and over 50 Brewer's Blackbirds. Sorry again for delay in this, phone died. Will post with more tomorrow hopefully. Good Birding! Mike Todd McKenzie, TN Birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx www.pbase.com/mctodd Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry=================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/ MAP RESOURCES Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________