12/31/04 Britton Ford Henry Co. A quick trip to Britton Ford after leaving the Mute Swans, revealed that there are still a TON of waterfowl at Britton Ford. Many of the birds are out at the limits of vision, but there are plenty of waterfowl that can be reasonably worked over. I was hoping for a Cackling Goose among the Canadas, which there were many of. I had 750-1000 Canadas in a field visible from the observation platform, but no small ones in the bunch. Many Black Ducks were feeding among the Big Boys with other dabblers, and at least one of the Black x Mallard hybrids was in the mix. I had also hoped that some of the Swan flock would still be present. While scanning a few ducks in the bay just north of the observation platform, I twice scanned by what appeared to be a left-over pile of dirty snow that hadn't melted. Finally, it hit me that this was a sleeping Swan, piled up on the far shore. I spent about 30 minutes with this bird, hoping it would raise its head. The one time it did, I was taking a photo. The photo is too distant to be sharp, and the bird never raised up again to give me another look. The neck was still dingy, but the back was whitening up, but with some dingy spots remaining. I'm leaning towards Tundra, but once again left with Swan sp. Good birding!! Mike Todd McKenzie, TN Carroll Co. birder1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx www.pbase.com/mctodd =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================