January 29, 2009 Ken-Tenn Hwy. NE of Union City Onion County I worked in Obion County today where we're still trying to get power restored to customers who have no power because of the major ice storm that hit NW Tennessee (as well as AR, MO, and KY). I work for an electric cooperative that serves about 34,000 customer in NW TN (mostly rural areas and a few small towns). We've had about 12,500 customers without power because of the ice storm. That number was down to about 5900 this afternoon. Most of the customers that are still out are in Lake and Obion Counties. The damage in these counties is catastrophic. It will probably be sometime next week before power gets restored to many folks, some maybe even longer. That's the bad part of this report. Because of this ice storm I've had to be outside a lot the last three days. Birds were also in desparation mode searching for food because of the ice storm. I'll try to give a full report of my sightings one I get a little more time at the computer once things get a little more back to normal. Today while working on Ken-Tenn Hwy. (Hwy. 214) between Union City and South Fulton I had an adult Northern Goshawk sail right over me and make a couple of sailing turns before going down into some trees in a backyard. This was just west of the Jiffy Steamer plant which is 4462 Ken-Tenn Hwy. This was at about 10 am. At approximately 1 pm I heard the distinctive call notes of a Red Crossbill. The notes kept getting closer and I looked up and 2 Red Crossbills flew over heading south. Presumably looking for a food source that wasn't covered in ice. This was on Ken-Tenn Hwy. near where Claude Tucker Rd. and Harris Rd. come in and jct. with the hwy. I also had an adult dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk on Crosswind Church Rd. (just off of Hwy. 51) north of Union City. Mike Todd already reported the Snow Bunting that I had in the road on Mt. Zion Rd. I should be working in the area for the next several days so I'll be keeping my ears and eyes open and my binoculars close by! I'll try to give a more complete report / list later on other birds I've seen. These were the highlights. Thanks to Mike Todd for reporting the Snow Bunting yesterday. Glad he got over to see the bird as well. By the way Mike, you don't owe me anything, I'm just paying you back for getting my state Western Grebe a couple of winters ago! Good birding!!! Mark Greene Trenton, TN Gibson County (we were spared from the ice storm) =================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 _____________________________________________________________