Oct. 12, 2004 Mud Island/Ensley Shelby Co. TN An early morning, before work trip to Mud Island, produced a few good birds on the Mississippi and its sandbars. The first bird I saw was a 2nd year Bald Eagle feeding at the edge of the water and it was soon joined by an adult bird. A Merlin came down the river below tree top level and made a detour to buzz the two birds but really did not put too much into the effort. A single Horned Grebe was seen floating down stream and a lone American White Pelican slept on the sand. A coyote wandered over the sand looking for a morning meal. The river continues to fall, exposing more and more habitat to scan. After my appointment, I decided to invest an hours trip to Ensley. On TVA Lake, a white bird caught my eye immediately, it was too large to be the young Black-necked Stilt. The bins focused in on an adult, winter plumaged, male Avocet preening at ease among the ducks. These birds really like to settle in with ducks. A few quick photos for the plumage and sure enough the Black-necked Stilt walked into the back ground. The immature Black-necked Stilt has been joined by an adult female but the two never interacted or fed near each other. At the Pits, there was just not enough time to go through all the birds but a Spotted Sandpiper was found, a species that I have missed over the last couple of weeks. Lesser Yellowlegs and Stilt numbers have really grown. Total shorebird species on the quick trip was 16 bringing the total for the week so far to 19. Pretty good for late fall shorebirds!! Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL'COOT / TLBA Bartlett, TN =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================