July 5, 2004 Lauderdale, Dyer, Lake Co. TN Fulton Co. KY I started Monday at Fulton, TN and the Lower Hatchie NWR. There was little of note at Hatchie except egrets and herons and at the Mississippi River the house on the bluff is about to go. I've watched the river chew at this land for years. The Cliff Swallow colony is in full swing and has split into 2 areas. I rechecked the location where all the Black-necked Stilts set down just north of Chisholm Lake Sunday and as expected the water was gone as were all the birds that the storm had put down. I did find a few Black-necked Stilts at Chickasaw NWR, with one pair chasing crows away from their young. The concentration of Great Egrets was the largest seen over the weekend with 354 counted in one sweep so probably 400 using the area. There were 72 Great Blues, 52 Little Blues and 43 Snowy's. There were also 3 Lesser Yellowlegs and a single Common Tern coursing the flats. The Great River Road yielded slim pickings with the scattered wet areas holding only a few pair of Black-necked, 2 Lesser Yellowlegs and 4 Least Sandpipers with big numbers of Killdeer and young. Most of the back water has drained quickly and Ol' Sol will take care of what is left shortly. At White Lake Refuge there was even less with a few Black-necked Stilts and two week old youngsters. Black Bayou and Phillippy had a total of 2 Lesser Yellowlegs and 1 Least Sandpiper. At Phillippy I did find 7 Black-necked Stilts with one on a nest. A surprise find on the way back south was a Solitary Sandpiper in Lake Co. in the same hole that I photographed the Cooper's hawk in a few weeks back. The largest and most diverse shorebirds were found in Fulton Co. KY, late in the afternoon. There were 67 Black-necked Stilts total with 49 in one location. Most of the birds were unmatched males with a few couples sprinkled in. In the 4 locations I located 4 nests for sure and suspected a couple of more by some behavior witnessed. A lot of the birds were resting and laying on the ground and could have looked like they were nesting but they were not. One of the nests that I had located before had been flooded out and two of the eggs were left scattered. On the good side, one nest has hatched young, I only saw one but the parents were widely separated which might mean more. This nest is remote from the main colony. Other shorebirds located were;1 American Golden-Plover in basic plumage w/ photos (Hap Chambers and I had 3 a few years back about the same time and location in the same plumage), 16 Lesser Yellowlegs, 3 Least Sandpipers and 2 Pectoral Sandpipers w/ photos (these two were loners at two different locations). The last find before I had to start the almost 3 hour ride home at 6:30 was a full breeding plumaged Black Tern (ph) sitting on the flats. 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================