> > From: <terrywitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Date: 2005/02/23 Wed PM 10:05:41 EST > To: <tn-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > Subject: reelfoot gulls etc > > I just couldn't stand it!!! After having missed the Iceland Gull twice in > Chattanooga several years ago, I made my second trip to Reelfoot Lake this > year. The weather was marginal to awful but the birds were brilliant - bad > weather = good birds. At 7 AM I was scoping the 1000 gulls roosting on Van > Works Road. After less than 30 minutes, I had both one Thayer's and one > Iceland Gull in the bag, and at one time had both, plus first year Herring in > the same scope view!! At about 8:30, David Pitts pulled up in a UT Martin > van, unfortunately about half the gulls had left not more than 5 minutes > before, and that group included both the rare ones :-(. Western Meadowlarks > were singing in the field north of VW Road and with patience, I had great > scope views of a bird singing from the top of a broken cornstalk. I made a > run north to the Philipy area, the only sighting of note was 5 immature > eagles eating from a carcass (deer?) on the west side of Hwy78 south of the > state line. Unfortunately all were bald-headed. There were numerous > gulls west of the prison, but not accesssible without committing a felony, so > I decided to head south to try for the Cackling Geese that had been reported > at the Hurd Road loop. On the way south, a squadron of A White Pelicans (50) > flew ov er the road. At Hurd Road, there was a large flock of Snow and Blue Geese (?2000) and even from a distance I could see 4 Canada types. Closer inspection revealed 4 Richardon's Geese. I went back north to both Van Works Road and Proctor Roads - nothing at VW but on Proctor, the Iceland Gull and Thayer's were both present. No sign of the California or LBB Gulls seen. By 2 PM the rains had set in, and I headed home with a smily face. I never saw David Pitts again so have no idea how he and his students fared > > Cheers > > Terry Witt > Murfreesboro 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================