FreeLists / tn-bird / [tn-bird] Ensley Bottoms MANY Surprises

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

June 8, 2002
Ensley Bottoms, North Lake
Shelby Co. TN

Thought I'd drop by the house to post this before trying to double up on 
Whistling Ducks in TN in one day..............

While at North Lake this morning, I had 5 Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks fly 
from the east end of the lake to the west end and disappear into the trees. 
Obvious white in the wings and all dark tail with feet trailing behind plus 
the goose like flight were the keys to picking these birds up and making sure 
they were not Fulvous. It was June 17, 1988, when I photographed 4 of these 
fine birds just a little north of North Lake. I found the second record for 
TN in Nov. 1985 at Shelby Farms and the last bird I've seen in TN was at 
Lauderdale Waterfowl Refuge Dec. 20, 1994. I'll head up to Reelfoot now and 
see if I can find the two Fulvous that I located last week that seem to be 
hanging in the area.

I found both nests of Western Kingbirds have very small young. The birds in 
the east nest could barely hold their heads up and I believe the birds in the 
west nest were just hatching due to the way the one parent was acting but I 
did see a fuzzy head bobbing around. Last year the birds hatched out on the 
17th in the east nest and the 24th in the west nest. I can't see either nest 
well enough to see how many young there are.

The Black-necked Stilts have at least 4 broods hatched with one set looking 
to be about a week old and 2 other sets just a few days old while one set was 
just hatching this morning. Yellow-crowned Night-Herons and Green Herons are 
also ferrying food back to hungry young and Eastern Kingbirds were found on 
three nests. A Black-billed Cuckoo was seen along Riverport Road and another 
Yellow-billed was carrying food to a nest behind the pits. The Painted 
Bunting still sings early from the dead tree at the run out.

One of the 2 leucistic Mallards seen last year has evidently managed to 
survive and was seen on McKellar Lake.

In the raptor family there came two surprises, a hunting female Harrier 
represents only my 2nd for June in West TN. Remember all the birds that were 
seen two years ago in Lake Co. in July? This species has nested south of 
Memphis in Mississippi so maybe this bird might hang around and make for some 
hot days watching. An Osprey was seen fishing in the wet lands along 
Riverport Rd. The clear unmarked chest may indicate it to be an unmated 
second year bird just hanging out. 

At the pits I only saw one Semipalmated Sandpiper and one White-rumped 
Sandpiper other than the nesting Black-necked Stilts and Killdeer. Now let's 
see if I can get the other Whistling Duck this afternoon. ;o)


Good Birding!!!

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


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