FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] Movements - TN-ARK

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

March 9-10, 2002
Ensley Bottoms, Shelby Co. TN
Big Lake NWR, Mississippi Co. ARK


Spent most of the day Saturday around Ensley looking for new birds of the 
season or indications of migration. I was not disappointed in either category.

The Scaup numbers on TVA Lake appeared slightly down but that is hard to 
judge as large numbers would trade in and out over the 2 hours I scanned 
through the flock. Quite a few birds were laid up along the mud spits looking 
like drifted debris blown by the wind. Again as last week in the thousands 
there were just a few Greater, 1 Ring-necked, 2 Canvasback and a couple of 
Hooded Merganser females. I scanned for the odd bird but, nada.

In Horn Lake Slough, I did find a first for the year, Great Egret. A bird had 
been seen off and on earlier through December 30 not too far from where I 
found this bird; could it have over wintered? Anyhow, I saw another on Sunday 
in a ditch in Arkansas, so the first birds are in the area. I watched strings 
of commorants heading up the river being buffeted around like a kite's tail 
in the cross winds. Over the weekend I had 3 Cooper's and 2 Sharp-shinned 
Hawks, all heading north. At Ensley on Saturday I had 2 kettles of Turkey 
Vultures, numbering 12 birds, passing and quartering with the wind to the 
Northeast. A couple of Greater Yellowlegs flew north over the pits without 
even looking down but other than a sprinkling of Snipe no other shorebirds 
were seen.

Sunday, I visited Big Lake NWR and Wapanocca NWR in Arkansas. The draw to 
northeast Arkansas being the immature male Vermilion Flycatcher, that has 
conveniently over wintered at the Big Lake headquarters building near Manila. 
I drove into the parking lot and caught a flash of red at the deer weigh-in 
station. I spent all of 30 seconds locating the bird flycatching in the 
debris field in the slough. I watched the bird fly from perch to perch making 
a long circle that took about 3/4 of an hour. I set up the car in a prime 
location and took photos as the bird approached my truck. Finally it flew to 
the designated perch and allowed one nice photo to be taken. ( if you would 
like to see this fiery headed bird, drop me a line and I'll "e" mail you a 
copy)

Later at Wapannoca NWR, I watched as a few thousand Snow Geese dropped, 
whiffing in a riot of gyrations into a field east of the refuge. Here I found 
4 species of geese with the few Canada Geese all the small race and these 
mingling appropriately with the Ross's. Back in TN at Mud Island I watched a 
group of 3 to 400 gulls trade in and out of the Wolf River area from the sand 
bar in the Mississippi River. Two immature Herring and a few Bonaparte's were 
the only thing other than Ring-billed that I could find. Three Forster's 
Terns also rested on the sand. 

Sunday afternoon, cormorants still winged their way north as they had all 
weekend; their eventual fate being decided by meetings across the US, these 
driven by misunderstandings and misinformation circulated by the fishing 
industries and sportsmen. A lot of good research is being pushed aside by the 
shear power of uninformed numbers.

Good Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL' COOT / TLBA
Bartlett Tenn.


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