FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Lift off in Memphis and Wind Birds

[OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx]

Sept. 2, 2006
MS RV, Ensley Bottoms
Memphis, TN
 
It was a good raptor day in Memphis, starting early with a Cooper's that  has 
been hanging around my house. On Dacus Bar, my first Harrier for the season  
was an adult female being harassed by a family of Kestrels. The Kestrels were  
pretty smart, for when an immature eastern, anatum type, Peregrine cleaned 
house  by sweeping all the shorebirds and terns away, the family affair got 
scarce.  Black and Least Terns were still present toward the dikes north of the 
 
Peregrine's Playground.
 
On the way into the pits, along Riverport Road, I discovered an immature  
Broad-winged Hawk sitting partially hidden; it sat long enough for a  portrait 
shot. It kept peering up into the trees and before long it and 12  other 
Broad-wings lifted off to kettle up and head south on the breeze out of  the 
north. 
You read about morning "lift offs" seen at hawk watch sites but  this was a 
first for me here in Memphis. Five more Broad-wings were seen  over the pits 
and 
one mixed kettle over the ridge contained single, Cooper's,  Red-shouldered, 
Red-tailed and a feisty Kestrel.
 
A couple of immature Red-tails hung around the pits most of the day and  kept 
a nervous bunch of Wind Birds scurrying about. An Osprey sat in one of the  
cottonwoods across TVA Lake and an adult Cooper's sat up on a snag,  glowing  
like a firebrand in the sun.
 
On Dacus Bar in the afternoon, post Peregrine, there were Black-necked  
Stilts, the only ones for the day, Sanderling, Spotted, Lesser and Greater  
Yellowlegs, Least and Pectoral Sandpipers. At the pits, scanning through the  
colorful array of immature birds, I photographed a single Buff-breasted. Others 
 
scattered in the mix were, Semipalmated Plovers, Lesser Yellowlegs, Solitary,  
Spotted, Semipalmated, 2 male and a single female Western (all immature), 
Least,  
Pectoral, a single immature Stilt and the ever present Killdeer. Only 14 
species  of Wind Birds for the day.
 
Now back to see what's new..............
 
Good Birding  !!!
Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA
6298 Memphis-Arlington Road
Bartlett, TN  38135


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