[tn-bird] Big Rain = Big Shorebirds

From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2002 21:21:52 EDT
Aug. 16, 2002
Ensley Bottoms
Shelby Co. TN

All day today, I told myself I was not going to the pits until Saturday. This 
afternoon another huge rain storm came in from the south and I could not 
resist. My old rule kept bouncing around in my head, "Big Rain means Big 
Shorebirds". Big storms will put large shorebirds that generally overfly us 
down on the ground. I left the payroll for the men and started for the pits 
in a driving rain at 4 PM and it paid off again. 

At TVA Lake, I scanned through the rain and saw a few Lesser Yellowlegs and 
three large birds feeding that turned into Greater Yellowlegs and farther 
back 2 even bigger birds were sleeping with their heads tucked. They had to 
be either Long-billed Curlew or Marbled Godwit. Well, my luck wasn't that 
good as when one bird looked up and flicked the water from its bill I saw I 
had 2 Godwits. I'll take them anytime. I took some shots through the rain but 
they just show large birds with heads tucked and nothing more. It was raining 
cats and dogs so I decided to find a place where I could scan from without 
drowning at the lagoons and eased through the mud up on one of the graveled 
roads.

Out on the flats were 8 Black-bellied Plovers and scanning around I found 2 
more each off to itself. That was twice the number we had had yesterday. The 
rain slowly eased and from another view point I saw another large chunky bird 
sleeping. When it stretched I could make out it was a Willet, another species 
we did not have on Thursday. A couple of Sanderling and one Baird's sauntered 
into view and I located the Western Sandpipers from the day before. When I 
started to look for the Wilson's Phalaropes I was startled to find there were 
now 7 of these nit picking machines.

At 6 PM the sun came out and birds started to filter back into the flats. The 
birds tend to move to grassy fields, gravel roads or dryer areas in a hard 
rain rather than get splattered with muck. A single Black Tern came in to 
preen and other birds started to talk about leaving. Two large groups of 
Pectorals left with some sweet calling Semipalmated Plovers in tow. Before I 
left the Willet had started to half heartedly peck around and far off I heard 
a Marbled Godwit call. As my Dad would have said "it was a damp fine day" at 
the pits.

I could not find the Ruddy Turnstone but traded off with a molting 
Golden-Plover for an even 20 species of WIND BIRDS and proof again that Big 
Rain = Big Shorebirds.

Good Birding!!!

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


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[tn-bird] Big Rain = Big Shorebirds

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