Nov. 27, 2005 Mud Island, Ensley Bottoms, Eagle lake Shelby Co. TN The Peregrine Falcon was present this AM at one of its perches on Dacus Bar. Today there was a single White Pelican standing in the water not too far away from the falcon. It is not often you can photograph those two species in one field of view. Nine Ring-billed Gulls and 5 Bonaparte's were sweeping the area and occasionally setting down on the bar to rest. At TVA Lake, Ensley Bottoms, there was a duck show with lots of Redhead and Canvasbacks, a large contingent of Greater and Lesser Scaup, Canada Geese, scattered Mallard, Bufflehead, Green-winged Teal, Gadwall, Shoveler and Ring-necked Ducks with Pied-billed Grebes and Coots completing the water birds list. Two of the scaup sported nose ornaments, a female had a yellow bill tag and a male had a faded orange bill tag. One adult Ring-billed Gull threw me a curve, it had an all BLACK BILL, I'll post photos of the female scaup and the gull later. The Least Sandpiper numbers have hit their winter level with under 20 birds found. Also found today, 3 Western Meadowlarks and 4 Vesper Sparrows. A very pale Red-tailed Hawk was the lightest I've ever seen that was not a Krider's. A late visit to Eagle Lake, to introduce a new birder to the area, produced 3 Bald Eagles, 2 adults and 1 immature. One of the adults stooped on a coot until it wore the bird down and snatched it from the water, it then retreated to a perch where black feathers did fly in the wind. That makes two coot hunts by Bald Eagles witnessed this weekend. We also flushed 4 Vesper Sparrows and watched at dusk as ducks streamed in from all directions. We stayed till dark and the ducks came in larger and larger flights. A great way to end a productive Thanksgiving Holiday. Good Birding !!! Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA 6298 Memphis-Arlington Road Bartlett, TN 38135 =================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 _____________________________________________________________