Chris Sloan and I braved the frigid temps on Sunday and birded Big Sandy, Britton Ford at TN NWR, and Trailer Rd up through Paris Landing SP. Oddly with 18 degree temps, the "heat shimmer" was horrible at times. Once it warmed up to 25 degrees or so, it was much better viewing. A few highlights: Pace Point and Rocky Point: 30+ Red-breasted Mergansers 1 EARED GREBE, probably same bird I found last Wednesday and observed by others since 1 Mallard X Black Duck hybrid - male ~250 Common Goldeneye, many females with visible yellow-tipped bills Granny's had the majority of the loons (20 or so), but they were far off and the "heat shimmer" was brutal. Britton Ford: 1 EARED GREBE The shad die-off is ongoing and there were probably tens of thousands of Ring-billed Gulls on the Big Sandy River. A smattering of Herring Gulls in there. We only had Bonaparte's Gulls once, which happened to be a group of 300 or so that were flushed by an eagle and flew in tight shorebird-like formation for a couple minutes. Good Birding, Scott Somershoe State Ornithologist Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency P.O. Box 40747 Nashville, TN 37204 615-781-6653 (o) www.pbase.com/shoeman =================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 _____________________________________________________________