18 Nov 2008 Musick's Campground South Holston Lake Sullivan Co., TN My best bird at Musick's today was a Lapland Longspur but the Rough-legged Hawk was no slouch. The Lapland Longspur was with two Horned Larks which flew into the parking area and stayed with me for about 15 minutes, showing little fear. The longspur was photographed from about 50 feet as it picked among the rocks. The best I can determine, it was in nonbreeding male plumage. Four Horned Larks were at the site about 20 minutes before the two showed up with the longspur. Rick Knight reports 10 previous longspur records in his new second edition of the Birds of Northeast Tennessee. That includes one he called 12 Nov 2001 along with Don Miller as it flew past this same South Holston Lake spot. It did not alight but was identified by its call in flight. The Rough-legged Hawk was perched to the right of the campground parking area in the top of a tree near the TWRA boat access ramp. It flew low across the lake and perched in the top of another tree but left in a minute or so and flew to the Washington County, VA campground, again crossing the lake at a low elevation. Other birds: Bufflehead 6 Common Loon 1 Pied-billed Grebe 4 Horned Grebe 7 (first fall record) American Coot 2 Killdeer 15 Bonaparte's Gull 12 (first fall record) Ring-billed Grebe 2 Horned Larks 4 Eastern Towhee 1 White-crowned Sparrow 3 Purple Finch 1 House Finch 3 House Sparrow 6 Let's go birding . . . . Wallace Coffey Bristol, 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/ 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 _____________________________________________________________