[tn-bird] Movement North III
- From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 28 Apr 2002 08:13:07 EDT
April 27, 2002
Eagle Lake, River Front
President's Island and
Ensley Bottoms, Shelby Co. TN
The winds out of the Southwest continued to push birds along Saturday. The
drizzling rain helped keep some species in good numbers and added more.
Lincoln Sparrows, Indigo Buntings and Palm Warblers abound. No good habitat
for Wind Birds at Eagle Lake, so very few left but a couple of fly over
flights of Pectoral and Lesser Yellowlegs were recorded. Two sets of Little
Blue Herons also flew by and ignored the 7 Great Egrets and a single Snowy
feeding in a far depression. Pied-billed Grebes are on nests now, using their
strange monkey like contact calls to keep in touch. Starlings have taken to
nesting in the voids of the observation tower and Wood Duck boxes. Sadly I
watched two Starlings evict a Yellow-shafted Flicker from its nest hole in a
tree. Flickers use to nest and roost in my barn but the Starlings ran them
out and I covered all the holes. New warblers for me this year at this
location were, Kentucky, Redstart, Hooded, Yellow and Ovenbird. Also new for
the year were Peewee, Acadian and Least Flycatchers.
After leaving Eagle Lake I came across my first Mississippi Kites and one was
carrying nesting material; when you get to mate only once a year you have to
"get it on".
The Mississippi River, after dropping to 16 feet from a 30 foot high, is
again on a steady rise reaching just under 22 feet. A long vigil while
searching through the Barn, Rough-winged and Tree Swallows for a Bank
produced one Caspian Tern. President's Island held multitudes of adult and
young Morning Doves and a few Turkeys plus Grasshopper Sparrows.
At Ensley Bottom's TVA Lake, 2 male Lesser Scaup are hold outs with Wood
Ducks, Hooded Merganser, Northern Shoveler, Blue-winged Teal and Mallards
making up the duck list. A Caspian Tern was at the lake when I arrived with
a Forster's replacing it when I left.
The Wind Birds were very active and the numbers had trebled since Friday
morning with more fly overs and a lot of birds dropping in, in the late
afternoon. The total numbers of shorebird species ended at 15 with 1998 birds
counted. Killdeer were in all stages of nesting from making scrapes to
brooding eggs to hustling chicks. The number of Semipalmated Plovers went
from 8 on Friday morning to 21 Saturday. The following were seen and counted
over a 5 hour period: Black-necked Stilts - 15, they were mating and building
nests. Greater Yellowlegs-2, Lesser Yellowlegs-469, Solitary Sandpiper-a not
so solitary-52, Spotted Sandpiper-1, Semipalmated Sandpiper-2, Western
Sandpiper-3 a treat in bright breeding plumage, Least Sandpiper-524, Pectoral
Sandpiper-858, Dunlin-6 molting into breeding plumage, Stilt Sandpiper-1 hold
over from Friday, Short-billed Dowitcher-1 very bright plumage, Common
Snipe-1 in same exact spot as Friday.
All these new migrators and returning resident birds pushed my TN year list
past 200, usually a land mark not reached until around mid May. Still more in
store as the winds still push outside my window.
Good Birding!!!
Jeff R. Wilson
OL' COOT / TLBA
Bartlett Tenn.
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