[TN-Bird] Delta Gold (Plovers) plus unusual Canada Goose nestings in AR and MS

March 29, 2009
Crittenden Co. AR
 
I had 4 birders coming in from north Georgia and Chattanooga, TN  to look for 
Golden-Plovers and Uplands, so I searched out the best  areas on Saturday. I 
found only 2 Uplands but a few thousand  Goldens and when they arrived on 
Sunday, we traveled across the bridge to  AR.
 
No Uplands found (about a week early) but we counted and  estimated the 
largest number of Golden-Plovers I've ever seen at one time  in one location. 
We 
found them strewn across the open fields west and south  of Wapanocca NWR. One 
field held birds as far as one could scan with a scope. We  moved to a wet area 
where the shorebirds were staging to feed and bathe, here we  found, 
Pectoral, Dunlin, Long-billed Dowitchers along with Greater and  Lesser 
Yellowlegs but 
also a quick survey revealed 2,200 plus Golden-Plovers but  the show had just 
started.
 
A couple of small airplanes were practicing aerobatics over the  fields to 
our west and flocks of Goldens streamed in just over our heads  dropping down 
right in front of us. Four cameras were working overtime,  with steady motor 
drives working, several hundred photos of the in-flight  plovers were digitally 
recorded in minutes, thank God for digitals as film would  have cost $$$$. 
 
We thought we had already seen a large portion of the Mississippi Flyway  
Golden-Plovers with a good 4,500 birds sitting, all alert in rows in front  of 
us. We looked behind us and the planes had stirred up even more than we  had in 
front of us. They looked like clouds of blackbirds storming and  swirling over 
the field. Very conservation estimates were, that over 10,000  American 
Golden-Plovers were in view in the immediate area!
 
Add that to Dick's 8,000 plus numbers to the north a couple of days before  
and think of all that went unnoticed in the rice/bean fields here in the Delta; 
 it is just hard to think about what flies over us undetected everyday  
during migration. I always think back to the written accounts of 40,000 of 
these  
True WIND BIRDS being killed for the market in one day, just north of  New 
Orleans years ago and wonder if they will ever approach those vast numbers  
again 
but the last few years have given me some hope as here in the Delta,  it 
seems, we are seeing more each year.
 
At Wapanocca NWR, a pair of Canada Geese have commandeered one of the  Bald 
Eagle nests and the female goose is setting eggs. I noticed this last week  but 
had to show our visitors the scene, more photos were taken. Canada Geese  
have also taken over a nest in Tunica Co. Those goslings will have to  watch 
out 
because that First Step in a BIGGIE!  
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.

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