FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Ensley Migration and Banded Pectoral Sandpiper

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

August 13, 2005
Ensley Bottoms
Southeast Shelby Co. TN
 
 
The drought reigns at Ensley, there is very little water running through  the 
system and the only clean water bathing pool will be dry in the next few  
days. Only 11 species of Wind Birds were seen today, I could not rouse even a  
single call much less a sighting of the Upland Sandpipers that have been 
hanging 
 out in the pigweed and I expected Buff-breasted, Baird's or Stilt  
Sandpipers, but none appeared before I left at 1:30 this afternoon.
 
There was a migration going on all day, with 2 Greater Yellowlegs falling  in 
and leaving along with small groups of Pectoral and Lesser Yellowlegs. The  
Least Sandpipers number in the thousands with only 1 Western and dwindling  
numbers of Pectoral and Semipalmated Sandpipers. Two Black Terns came in from 
on  
high followed by 5 more and then 2 but an hour later none could be found.
 
I found a Pectoral Sandpiper that kept me busy for two hours. It was  
sporting a flag on its lower left leg but both legs were so covered in sludge  
that I 
could not get a read on the number or colors of the other suspected  bands. 
It has been a couple of years since I've seen a banded shorebird at  Ensley, 
this makes about 40 I've seen over the years. 
 
I knew the bird would eventually go to the bathing pool and I might get a  
look there. Sure enough it left and I trailed it over and watched as the mud  
came off; the flag was green indicating it was banded somewhere in the US.  
Besides the flag, it also sported 4 other colored bands along with a metal 
band.  
I got some photos of the bands and I will be able to trace down where the  
bird was banded from their positions on the legs.
 
Overhead all morning, there was a huge number of Chimney Swifts (many  
hundreds), swallows, a few hawks and feeding Mississippi Kites. Three  
Broad-winged 
Hawks slipped down the draft off the ridge line to the east and  appeared to 
be migrating.  

Good  Birding!!!

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