FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Shorebirds and More

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

July 2-3-4, 2005
West TN
Crittenden Co. AR
 
At Ensley Bottoms in Memphis, Saturday, I arrived to find the air full of  
Killdeer as two Mississippi Kites were feeding right above the pits. In the  
horde, I could only find three Least Sandpipers scurrying about. There  could 
have been more but that was all I could locate. A pair of newly hatched  young 
Black-necked Stilts were trying to figure out how to get their short  rubbery 
legs to operate and there was no indication that the Mississippi Kites  were 
snacking on the young as they did a couple of years back. The dry and  
disturbed 
areas have caused a high loss of Black-necked Stilt young with very  few being 
successfully fledged and those that have are been moved away soon  after 
first flight. There are still 6 active nests. 
 
Across the river, in Arkansas at the clay pits, I located a pair of  
Black-necked Stilts on Saturday. There were also 6 Least Sandpipers, a Lesser  
Yellowlegs, 8 Least Terns, 6 Pied-billed Grebe, an adult Ring-neck Duck, 2  
Blue-winged Teal, 9 Mallards, 186 Canada Geese, an American Coot and a Common  
Moorhen. 
Sunday, these birds were all in place but joined by a molting Black  Tern. In 
a pool over towards the levee near the fairgrounds, I had 6 pair of  
Black-necked Stilts, 4 Least Terns and 6 Yellow-crowned Night-Herons. 
 
On Sunday, I could not find much along the Mississippi RV until I reached  
the Hatchie Bar in Tipton Co. TN, here there were a lot of Least Terns but they 
 
were losing to the rush of picnickers and boaters. I'm sure a lot of nests 
were  trampled over the holidays. It has been a tough year for Least Terns with 
the  river on a roller coaster ride, finally just settling down. There were 
also 6  Black Terns, 3 adults and 3 immature using the area just north of the 
Bank  Swallow nesting area, which also took a hit this weekend.
 
On Sunday and Monday, the numbers of Least Sandpipers at the pits in  
Memphis, took an expected jump to 28 birds on Sunday and 26 on Monday with a  
token 
Lesser Yellowlegs putting in a brief appearance. 
 
On Monday afternoon, I arrived at Chickasaw NWR at 3 in the afternoon, I  had 
almost decided not to make the long walk into the dwindling pools when  
through the haze I saw a bird moving around in, of course, the far pool, it did 
 
not ring a bell but even without seeing a bill through the heat waves,  it 
still 
seemed like a dowitcher. The breeze had picked up so off I went.  The Fish 
Crows still out number the Common at Chickasaw this year around the  
headquarters.
 
The shorebirds were spread around Chickasaw but I hit a few expected  and 
unexpected first of season species. There were 300+ Killdeer, 21 Least  
Sandpipers, 1 male Black-necked Stilt, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, 7 Lesser  
Yellowlegs, a 
single Spotted Sandpiper, and close looks at a surprise, a long  legged, short 
winged, well plumaged Long-billed Dowitcher. This bird is probably  a non 
breeder or had an unsuccessful nesting as it is running a couple of weeks  
earlier 
than expected. I could not relocate the Common Moorhen that was seen  last 
week. There were 64 great Egrets, 41 Snowy, 9 Great Blue Herons and a  single 
flyby Green Heron but NO Little Blue Herons. The only Little Blue seen  all 
weekend was a single first year bird in Arkansas at Wapanocca NWR.
 
Mississippi Kites put on a show everywhere this long weekend with 17 at one  
time at Ensley, over 70 looked like a swarm of swallows over Treasure Island 
at  McKellar Lake, 31 over the fields at Wapanocca NWR in Crittenden Co. AR, 21 
over  Eagle Lake in Shelby Co. TN, 32 north of Shelby Forest in Tipton Co, 
TN, 13 over  Chickasaw NWR in Lauderdale Co. and upon returning home on Monday 
afternoon,  three posed for photos at my house in Bartlett.
 
The drought in AR and here along the Mississippi River in TN is predicted  to 
persist or worsen for the foreseeable future by the forecasters. With no  
pumps working at the refuges and no water in historic sites, it is a  shame 
there 
will be so little habitat to greet the returning Wind Birds.  A total of 7 
species of Wind Birds, but the tide has turned!!!!
 
Good  Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett,  TN