May 21, 2005 Ensley Bottoms Shelby Co. TN Over the past few years, I've told everyone that the most likely place to find an Inca Dove in TN would be President's Island in southwest Memphis. Well, I missed it by 1 mile. At a little before 10 this morning an Inca Dove flew into my field of view while I was scanning the trees from the levee west of the waste water treatment plant. This is an area known to most TN birders for breeding Painted Buntings. The flashing red in the wings filled my glasses as I swung on the bird to keep up. It went behind some vines and the next time I got on the bird it was flying directly away. I noted extensive white on the outside of the tail, more than is seen on Common Ground-Dove. I could not get a fix on the tail length but noted the longer wings and slightly different cadence to their beat. The bird disappeared toward McKellar Lake. I was fairly confident the bird was an Inca but needed a better look. I searched the area for 45 minutes returning twice to the parking area used by the Corp of Engineers' dredge boat crew, on the second time the bird flushed and flew back south into a tree line but did not stop. On this occasion the long tail was quite evident. On the first sighting the bird was flying at eye level over open ground and I was up on the levee; when the bird got to the tree line it went through the trees rather than going over them. This suggests to me that the bird knows the area. I searched this morning for over an hour without another sighting and again this afternoon for another hour or so but again nada. This a species I've expected for some time in TN, I've seen 2 birds just south of Memphis in Tunica Co. MS and they nested about 100 miles south of here a few years back. One bird showed up in KY a couple of years back just across the TN line. Amazingly, I heard one calling at the pits one gray afternoon but could not get to the area the calls were coming from, so it went unconfirmed. Hopefully this bird can be relocated and is the first of many more to come, as the species is expanding its range to the east with breeders already in western AR. I believe there was a recent sighting near Jonesboro in northeast AR just 50 miles from Memphis. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL'COOT / TLBA Bartlett, TN =================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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================