[TN-Bird] Bad Weather = Good Birds

May 17, 2003
Ensley Bottoms
Shelby Co. TN

Following suite, chasing bad weather at the pits produced a fall out of birds 
and on top of that a Peregrine to stir the mix. I arrived in the rain and 
left in the rain but in between it was mostly just overcast and dreary, 
except for the birds.

At TVA Lake, there was the most worn and beleaguered looking Caspian Tern 
I've ever seen with 17 Least Terns flitting around. One of the resident Bald 
Eagles perched in a tree line and an Osprey didn't make too much of a fuss 
about the neighborhood bully. I located the expected Painted Bunting on his 
normal territory and heard another giving song near by. I watched a Shrike 
feeding a fledged young and quite a few Killdeer with various sized babes in 
tow.

Western Kingbirds have returned and brief looks at first revealed none 
sitting on regular perches but I returned later and watched 2 nests being 
built with one female tearing apart one of last years nests and moving the 
evidently select material to a new location on the next tower west. I watch 
these 4 birds for some time before going south and finding another single 
bird defending a territory. This may have been the bird seen earlier this 
month. Its mate may be on a nest or this is just a hopeful bachelor. I did 
see evidence of a nest on one tower.

The real treats awaited me at the pits. I could see large flocks of Wind 
Birds dancing over the area from afar and reasoned that they were not doing 
this just for exercise. Shortly after my attaining a reasonably dry viewing 
area, they were up again and in came an adult Peregrine. This bird visited us 
4 times over the next 3 hours until finally taking a Lesser Yellowlegs that 
zigged when he should have zagged.

This activity allowed me to view most of the birds in the area without moving 
around too much and the numbers and species mounted. One flock settled in and 
I noted 3 or 4 Wilson's Phalaropes in the mix. One facing away looked mighty 
small and when it turned so I could see the side of its face and neck, I 
nearly fell out of my seat. A female Red-necked in full plumage is stunning. 
This was the first of this species for the spring season in WEST TN for me 
and I think it has been a pretty long while since one has shown up in the 
spring in TN anywhere? It also represents my first breeding plumaged bird 
here in TN. I've recorded this bird on 15 occasions in TN at Pace Point, 
Island -13 and Ensley Bottoms. The high number was 5 on Aug. 14, 1993 on a 
day when all three phalarope species visited the pits. My early fall date was 
just last July on the 20th and my late date was an October bird at Pace 
Point. I saw a bird in November in Arkansas one year. All of these birds have 
been immatures but I have seen adults in Mississippi in late July. 

I have some photos of this bird but needless to say they don't do this beauty 
justice as the distance and lighting was poor. I'll share a couple if you 
drop me a reply on line. I promise to work harder on a site where I can post 
new photos.

Wind Birds dropped in and left through the day until It started back to 
raining at 2 PM and I decided to head north since I did not think I would get 
any good light for more photos. I ended up with 20 species of shorebirds, my 
highest spring species count at Ensley. The following numbers are the top 
numbers on the ground at any one time. Needless to say there were probably 
more in the far muddy reaches that I did not venture to.

Killdeer galore, Semipalmated Plover - 5, Black-necked Stilt - 76 with 20 
nests and mating going on everywhere. Greater Yellowlegs - 19 last seen 
heading north after a P-ATTACK. Lesser Yellowlegs - 47 less one! Solitary 
Sandpiper - 3, Spotted Sandpiper - 4, Semipalmated Sandpiper - 314, Western 
Sandpiper - 4, Least Sandpiper - 245, White-rumped Sandpiper - 191, Baird's 
Sandpiper - 2, Pectoral Sandpiper - 16, Dunlin in breeding plumage - 21, 
Stilt Sandpiper b-p - 18, Short-billed Dowitcher b-p - 2, Wilson's Snipe - 2, 
Wilson's Phalarope - 3 and last but not least Red-necked Phalarope breeding 
plumage female !!


Good Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL' COOT / TLBA
Bartlett Tenn.


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