[TN-Bird] Mississippi River/ Migration / Nexrad Radar
- From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2005 08:23:01 EDT
August 19, 2005
Mississippi River,
Ensley Bottoms
Shelby Co. TN
I've been running by the river front every day and when time allowed, by
Ensley Bottoms this week and also watching the donut signatures of roosts each
morning on Nexrad Radar. The river migration has dwindled down with the
Black-necked Stilt family groups down from 25 to just 3 birds. The Least terns
are
still hanging around with some immature birds being fed, while this week I've
seen only 1 Forester's and 1 Black Tern. I expect another push if a strong
front would hurry our way but we still need rain as the drought continues and
heavy rain only seen in small areas. The rains split and ran around Memphis
this week while some got heavy downpours all around us.
At Ensley there have been increases and decreases in Wind Birds with
Pectoral Sandpipers numbers being on a roller coaster. Token Western
Sandpipers,
Lesser Yellowlegs and Stilt Sandpipers appear and disappear while Least
Sandpipers and Semipalmated have stayed fairly stable all week. There are
still
enough birds to keep you busy culling through for that one great bird while
the
bright and sharply dress immature birds are rising in numbers and just great
to
look at. The bathing pool has almost disappeared, it being sucked up by ol'
Sol and the hot wind.
Driving around looking in the spread fields, I noted the Horned Lark
families have started to coalesce into small flocks, surely to grow in leaps
and
bounds as the season progresses. I also flushed 2 Yellow Warblers feeding in
the
pigweed and noted quite a few young Song Sparrows. Mississippi Kites are
feeding at high altitudes and seem to be moving south.
The Morning Doves have had the best breeding year ever at Ensley; last week
Mike Todd and I saw probably the largest concentration we had ever seen here
in the south. Today, I saw something moving through the weeds and flushing
the doves that were resting in the shade. I waited and out walked an immature
Cooper's Hawk, it look at my truck and trotted back into the cover. I could
keep up with its progress by the doves flushing in front of the hunt. Usually
these birds come in during the fall and perch on the power lines waiting to
catch a Morning Dove that drifts off to sleep only to never wake up. They will
skim across the field at stealth levels and pounce on the immature birds that
get too comfortable and fall asleep.
The biggest change this week came quite unexpectedly on Nexrad Radar, with
the complete break up of the huge roost of Purple Martins in Lake Co, over the
last 3 days. This was the largest roost off the coastal areas that I had
seen this year.The smaller roosts had disappeared earlier in the week but I
usually don't expect the larger ones to break down until the very last week in
August. I was hoping to get up that way this weekend to see the congregation
but they appear to have flown the coop.
Good Birding!!!
Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett, TN
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