[TN-Bird] Mississippi River and Ensley - Weekend

Oct. 21-22, 2006
Shelby Co. TN
Mississippi River, Robco Lake and Ensley Bottoms
 
 
I spent far too little time at these places this weekend but the river  had 
little to show after a quick 6 foot rise since the  rain. The lingering 50 or 
so White Pelicans and few Great Blue Herons,  Great Egrets and DC Cormorants 
were the show of larger birds with a fewer number  of Rough-winged Swallows 
feeding but huge numbers of Tree Swallows streaking  straight down the river in 
a 
rush south. 
 
The Tree Swallow migration extended to the pits at Ensley Bottoms where on  
Saturday, I had Killdeer and counted 2300 Least Sandpipers, 2 Western in basic  
plumage, the injured Pectoral Sandpiper, 31 Lesser Yellowlegs, 3 Wilson's 
Snipe  and a single Dunlin. Good numbers of Coots at TVA Lake were counted 
along 
with 9  Pied-billed Grebes. Kestrels, Cooper's, Red-shouldered and Red-tailed 
Hawks  were seen there over the two days along with a single immature Bald 
Eagle  traveling south. The sparrow fields were jumping but I had little time 
to 
entice  the skulkers out in the open. My first White-crowned of the season 
teed up high  in a bare willow.
 
The northwest winds had chopped the Least Sandpipers down to 900 on Sunday  
and I added and photographed a tardy Semipalmated Sandpiper, a molting immature 
 bird with quite a chunky build. Its bill far more typical than the small 
thin  billed individual that was present last week.
 
Numbers of Ruddy Ducks are building on Robco Lake and there were 48 Am.  
White Pelicans feeding there Sunday afternoon on my return trip from  
Mississippi, 
along with 13 Great Egrets and 9 Ring-billed Gulls.  
Good Birding  !!!

Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA
6298 Memphis-Arlington Road
Bartlett, TN  38135



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