12/04/05 Lauderdale area to Reelfoot Lake area Crockett, Dyer, & Lake Co. Jeff Wilson and I spent the day yesterday in the northwestern part of the State. We met early at Halls, TN, at the old airfield, looking for Lapland Longspurs, and hopefully a Snow Bunting. We had at least 100 Laps working the area, along with many Horned Larks, but nothing out of the ordinary. Several Harriers and Red-tails were also working the area. Before we met, I had seen the only shorebirds of the day, 2 Greater Yellowlegs and 25 Least Sandpipers in some flooded fields in Crockett Co. Rusty Blackbirds were also present a couple of locations. Jeff and I checked at Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge, with nothing out of the ordinary. We decided to bird our way north, and be back here late this afternoon for the arrival of both ducks and a massive blackbird roost, plus the Sun would be behind us. A trip to the nearby sewage lagoons revealed a hen Common Golden hanging out with the Hooded Mergansers there. We had Lapland Longspurs several other locations on the day, but no big groups. We had a brief startle, when a ghostly pale bird sat up atop a dirt clod in a big, open field. We had been thinking Snow Bunting all day, but settled for a gorgeous leucistic Horned Lark. We got a few photos, but none that do it justice, it was a striking bird. We had been going through Red-tails all day, with little in the way of variety. We finally found a nice dark-morph bird, perched in a tree in a yard in Tiptonville. This bird had it's back to us, but the very dark plumage on the upperparts, and long wings that reached the tail tip gave it away. On Reelfoot itself, there were a couple of Common Loons and a Horned Grebe, to go along with the Scaup and Ruddies. There are some nice congregations of gulls in the fields, but nothing out of the ordinary. We made it back to Lauderdale with about 30 minutes of daylight, to a nice bunch of birds. There were good numbers of Greater White-fronted Geese, and a single Snow Goose when we arrived. A lone Ross's came in while we were there, but we didn't have a Canada Goose all day! Most of the common ducks were present, including a nice little group of Redheads. A lone Canvasback came in just before dark. Though nothing rare was seen, it was a gorgeous day to be out. It was my 1st trip to the Mississippi River area in several months now. I have posted a couple of photos of the leucistic Horned Lark, and one of the dark-morph Red-tail on my website. Take the following link, and just hit the "Next" tab to get to the next photo: http://www.pbase.com/mctodd/image/37158797 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================