November 22, 2008 Greene County: Greeneville, Wal-Mart Distribution Center (WMDC), and miscellaneous areas in the western end of the county I spent a couple of hours this morning searching for waterfowl and field birds in and around Mosheim, Midway, and McDonald. Most of the reliable ponds were frozen, but I did find a small area of open water packed with ducks in the fourth pond at WMDC. Field birds were rather scarce. A short list of the day's birds includes the following: Gadwall (12, WMDC) American Wigeon (5, WMDC) American Black Duck (8, WMDC) Mallard (135--120 WMDC, 15 elsewhere) Northern Shoveler (4, WMDC) Northern Pintail (7, WMDC) Green-winged Teal (18, WMDC) Ring-necked Duck (WMDC) Pied-billed Grebe (WMDC) Rough-legged Hawk (light-morph, WMDC) American Coot (WMDC) Horned Lark (7, Hwy. 340 approx. 1 mile east of the Hamblen Co. line) American Pipit (9) Savannah Sparrow (3) Swamp Sparrow (6) Purple Finch (2, Greeneville). The Rough-legged Hawk was hunting over the railroad track and fence that border the third pond at WMDC. When I first became aware of it, I thought "harrier" because of the similar flight styles of the two species. Then I recognized the buteo shape, with "chunkier" body and shorter tail. When the bird flew past me, heading east, I saw the white on the basal portion of the upper side of the tail. I didn't get a good enough look at plumage details to determine age or gender. The bird disappeared quickly from view, dropping to the ground beyond the railroad track, I think. I was unable to re-locate it, even though I looked carefully and later drove along nearby Jim Kirk Road to scan the fields adjacent to WMDC. The area where the Rough-legged Hawk appeared is less than a mile from where I found a dark-morph bird on February 19, 2005. Don Miller Greeneville, Greene Co., 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 _____________________________________________________________