[tn-bird] Ensley Surprises #3
- From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 23:18:06 EDT
June 22, 2002
Ensley Bottoms
Shelby Co. TN
On June 13, I predicted the Western Kingbirds would fledge and that I'd get
my first shorebird returns this weekend. Well, both predictions came through.
Shortly after I arrived at the Allen Steam Plant, I was joined by Andy Sigler
from Chicago. He drives down occasionally for weekend forays and you could
run into him anywhere in the eastern US on one of his jaunts taken to fill in
holes in state lists. He had already seen the Painted Bunting and had found
the Western Kingbirds. As we talked and scanned the towers, we were joined by
a couple of other birders. Soon after that our group was checked out by TVA
security, taking our license plate numbers and asking for ID. As you can
imagine things are tight at these huge power plants at this time.
Later I talked to the plant manager and showed him the birds in the scope. I
had told the guard shortly after I first found the nests that there might be
birders out standing around. The Manager said everything would be all right
as long as everyone stayed out on the main road and did not approach the
plant but still you can expect to be checked.
The pair of Westerns at the eastern most nest were still feeding young on the
nest but there was no activity at the western most nest site. This could mean
many things, nest failure, adults missing or the young had fledged.
Fortunately after 45 minutes we located an adult feeding one young. While
standing around we first had 3 adults then 4 but in all the scurrying around
I thought there might be 5. There was definitely one adult that seemed not
belong to either pair when we watched it. After another 30 minutes we located
a second young bird being fed and confirmed there were at least 5 adults as
they would occasionally all come out to the road and fuss around but stay
fairly close together. All of a sudden I counted 6 adults and quickly took a
photo with all six sitting in a line on the wires over the road. The others
left and Andy had to go to the east for Lark Sparrow and Bewick's Wrens and
then to Kentucky for ST Flycatchers on Sunday, man he gets around.
Now here was a new twist that I had to figure out. We had two active nests
with at least two fledged young from the west nest, we had young being fed at
the east nest but we had two Western Kingbirds left over. I spent the greater
part of the day trying to account for all the birds but one kept coming up
missing and another just fed and took no food anywhere to anybody. Could it
be that we have the female of this last pair sitting on another nest? Twice
today I followed a bird as it flew low into an area filled with transformers
and twice I lost the bird so this might be the third nest. No luck today but
I'll stake it out tomorrow.
This afternoon I watched the feeding of the young at the eastern nest trying
to count them but I could only tell there were more than one. At 12:05 I saw
a flurry of activity at the nest and one youngster fluttered down and after 3
unsuccessful attempts to land on a crossbar grabbed onto one and then looked
back up to the others above. One of the adults followed and fed the bird as
it feebly flew from crossbar to crossbar but it got stronger with every try.
At 4:35 PM the attending adult with held food and made the young bird follow
from the tower down to a fence before it would relinquish the food item. I
now know there are at least two more in that nest and there could be even
three birds but when I left this afternoon they were content to stay put.
Totals for the day.
6 Adult Western Kingbirds
3 Young out of the nests
2-3 Young in a known nest
Possible third nest
Kinda Neat Stuff!
Good Birding!!!
Jeff R. Wilson
OL' COOT / TLBA
Bartlett Tenn.
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