Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Well, Tony King and I made the trek down to Hiawassee early this = morning; but despite the gorgeous (very cold) and very calm morning, the pilots = had to stand down because of strong winds up high. So after visiting with = Joe Duff and one of the ground crew members, and several Chattanooga birding friends, we headed over to the new Cherokee Removal Memorial. The new = ramp there is splendid, so good handicap access. We had a wonderful view up river of hundreds and hundreds of Sandhill Cranes coming in by the = droves, standing around the sand bars and island, with ONE WHOOPING CRANE in = their midst. It did have a leg band and a transmitter, but was way too far = away to read anything, even with a couple of excellent scopes. Enjoyed = watching him preen and stretch out those huge, black tipped wings, then tuck his = head back over his shoulder and snooze for a while. Seemed very "at home." They are not expecting a good forecast for the next two days, but who = knows? So tomorrow morning, several folks from KTOS will be birding Seven = Islands, looking for the Townsend's Solitaire that's been hanging around. =20 Happy birding! =20 =20 Patty Ford Knoxville, TN =20 =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the count 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 _____________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp _____________________________________________________________