[TN-Bird] Wood Storks/Shelby Co. TN

From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2003 20:44:24 EDT
Aug. 23, 2003
Mud Lake
Shelby Co. TN

Just before noon today (Saturday) I left Ensley and went to see if anything 
had shown up in Cocklebur and Mud Lake on the TN/MS State line.

Four Wood Storks soared up from Cocklebur and sailed to the south but were 
not doing too good at making altitude. At that time, a kettle of 7 Turkey 
Vultures found a thermal just off the levee at the east end of Mud Lake. The 4 
Storks came back to try this up draft and did little better as it evidently 
broke 
off and the vultures scattered. I was able to get a few shots before they 
headed to the east, destination unknown.

The numbers of shorebirds at Ensley have really soared with even more birds 
than last week if you can believe that. There are birds everywhere. The 
Pectoral Sandpipers now number over 2500 birds and the Least probably twice 
that. 
There were good numbers of really elegant juvenile plumaged Westerns and I did 
find one heavily molted adult that stood for a photo. Almost all of the 
Semipalmated Sandpipers left are young birds and every species present had 
young in 
the mix. Only a few Semipalmated Plovers were still sticking around and I 
recorded my first immature of that species for the year. 

The best three shorebird species today were a molting adult Golden Plover, a 
molting immature Wilson's Phalarope, that was incessantly darting about 
snatching bugs and 2 Upland Sandpipers staying out of the taller wet grass in 
the 
early morning. Total shorebird species, 15 for the day.

Another treat was an early female Harrier that I was watching approach across 
a field when
a young Cooper's Hawk came up off the ground and chased the Harrier from the 
country side. Usually the earliest Harriers I see are males and they show up 
as early as the first week in July. I saw this young bird a couple of times 
through the day as the shorebirds were put into the air at its approach. Late 
in 
the day I had what appeared to be an adult male Cooper's swoop across and get 
the birds up. I later saw a kettle of 7 Red-tails and 3 Broad-wings headed 
south with only 3 Mississippi Kites seen all day.

In various places today I had a total of over 300 Blue-winged Teal along with 
a few Shoveler and Green-winged. As usual a couple of Pintail showed up in 
the mix. There is always an early August movement of these elegant ducks and 
then you don't see them again until winter.

Out on the Mississippi River I found 1 Caspian Tern, 1 Black Tern and a lot 
of Least Terns still feeding young.  

I hope the "Wind Birds" stack up even more tomorrow, there has just got to be 
an odd one in the bunch.

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.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
          web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
        jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx      (423) 764-3958
=========================================================
[TN-Bird] Wood Storks/Shelby Co. TN

Other related posts:
