Aug. 22 thru-26, 2008 Ensley Bottoms Shelby Co. TN Just thought I'd catch up on the weather related shorebirds coming through Ensley. I ran down after the storms Friday for an hour and found lots of new arrivals but a bunch were acting like they would soon be back on their way south. Lots of immature Westerns in the mix plus a bunch of Semipalmated Plovers added to the numbers already there. On Saturday, I was joined by Drew Wirwa, down from UT Knoxville for a touch up on plumage and ageing of the birds passing through. We ran into Q. B. Gray and had a good bunch of birds to pick through until a Cooper's made a few unsuccessful low runs and then soared for a time just to keep the birds harassed and many left going to the river, most not returning till late afternoon. We had two stunning, picture perfect Baird's Sandpipers and close looks at a lot of the variations in color and wear on the birds present. One of the many Semipalmated Plovers was my first immature for the year. Saturday afternoon the Western Sandpipers returned for photos and again a single Buff-breasted was found hiding in the spread fields. Q.B. showed us a photo he had taken of a Upland Sandpiper that had evidently been chased out of the pigweed onto the open pits and had tiny Least Sandpipers walking all around it, almost between its legs. The Sunday rains brought in more Westerns and immature Semipalmated Sandpipers with a molting Golden-Plover dropping in at the magic 10 AM time, 25 Lesser Yellowlegs and 2 Stilt Sandpipers making the noon flight. The numbers of Solitary Sandpipers went up with almost half being bright immature birds. Two Black Terns spent a little time foraging over the pits in the afternoon. A quick Tuesday trip held an immature Short-billed Dowitcher in a strange plumage and a basic plumaged Stilt Sandpiper. Still waiting for immature Pectorals having seen only one so far this season. I did photograph an adult PECTORAL SANDPIPER that was BANDED somewhere in the US, hopefully it can be traced as it not only had a green flag but 4 more colored bands. Sixteen shorebird species, but far below the expected mix at this time. The migration has seemed not only early when the adults pushed through but the birds don't appear to lay over as long as they usually do in the Fall. Five Northern Shovelers and a dozen Blue-winged Teal plus a single Green-winged flying in Monday, announced the official start of duck migration. Good Birding !!! Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA 6300 Memphis-Arlington Road Bartlett, TN 38135 http://www.pbase.com/ol_coot/ What is this feathered thing that lifts my heart to the heavens. **************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel deal here. (http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047) =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ 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 ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ MAP RESOURCES Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________