FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Mississippi River/ Migration / Nexrad Radar

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

August 19, 2005
Mississippi River,
Ensley Bottoms
Shelby Co. TN
 
I've been running by the river front every day and when time  allowed, by 
Ensley Bottoms this week and also watching the donut signatures of  roosts each 
morning on Nexrad Radar. The river migration has dwindled down with  the 
Black-necked Stilt family groups down from 25 to just 3 birds. The Least  terns 
are 
still hanging around with some immature birds being fed, while  this week I've 
seen only 1 Forester's and 1 Black Tern. I expect another  push if a strong 
front would hurry our way but we still need rain as the drought  continues and 
heavy rain only seen in small areas. The rains split and ran  around Memphis 
this week while some got heavy downpours all around  us.
 
At Ensley there have been increases and decreases in Wind  Birds with 
Pectoral Sandpipers numbers being on a roller coaster. Token  Western 
Sandpipers, 
Lesser Yellowlegs and Stilt Sandpipers appear and  disappear while Least 
Sandpipers and Semipalmated have stayed fairly stable all  week. There are 
still 
enough birds to keep you busy culling through for that one  great bird while 
the 
bright and sharply dress immature birds are rising in  numbers and just great 
to 
look at. The bathing pool has almost disappeared,  it being sucked up by ol' 
Sol and the hot wind.
 
Driving around looking in the spread fields, I noted the  Horned Lark 
families have started to coalesce into small flocks, surely to grow  in leaps 
and 
bounds as the season progresses. I also flushed 2 Yellow Warblers  feeding in 
the 
pigweed and noted quite a few young Song Sparrows. Mississippi  Kites are 
feeding at high altitudes and seem to be moving south.
 
The Morning Doves have had the best breeding year ever at  Ensley; last week 
Mike Todd and I saw probably the largest concentration we had  ever seen here 
in the south. Today, I saw something moving through the weeds and  flushing 
the doves that were resting in the shade. I waited and out walked an  immature 
Cooper's Hawk, it look at my truck and trotted back into the  cover. I could 
keep up with its progress by the doves flushing in front of the  hunt. Usually 
these birds come in during the fall and perch on the power lines  waiting to 
catch a Morning Dove that drifts off to sleep only to never wake up.  They will 
skim across the field at stealth levels and pounce on the immature  birds that 
get too comfortable and fall asleep.
 
The biggest change this week came quite unexpectedly on Nexrad  Radar, with 
the complete break up of the huge roost of Purple Martins in  Lake Co, over the 
last 3 days. This was the largest roost off the coastal areas  that I had 
seen this year.The smaller roosts had disappeared earlier in the  week but I 
usually don't expect the larger ones to break down until the  very last week in 
August. I was hoping to get up that way this weekend to see  the congregation 
but they appear to have flown the coop.  

Good  Birding!!!

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