[TN-Bird] Photo Weekend

June 4-5, 2005
West TN
 
Sorry for delay but PBASE is getting where you can't upload photos in a  
timely manner.
 
Well, the 2 or 3 weeks of June are here when the migrants are mostly gone  
and you have to hunt around for the stragglers or those mixed up birds that are 
 
going to show up just to boggle a few minds. This past weekend, I started  
looking at the river early Saturday morning, at last it has fallen and sandbars 
 
are available for birds to use but a little late for the unusual terns or  
shorebirds that are treats in the late spring. At least, Least Terns have a few 
 
places to nest rather than the fields they had started to use because of high 
 water. These dry land nests are seldom successful.
 
I met a couple at Ensley to show them a few of the area specialties, they  
are into photography and new to birding. The Painted Bunting put on a great 
show 
 and we got to see what are evidently the only pair of Western Kingbirds 
nesting  this year at Ensley. We also had a lot of Black-necked Stilts with 
fresh 
out of  the nest young running around. There were 164 White-rumped, 8 
Semipalmated  Sandpipers, 3 Least Sandpipers and lots of Killdeer but that was 
it Wind 
Bird  wise. We went over to President's Island to get a few shots of the  
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher's nest, the female was setting the eggs but  
unfortunately the male looks like he has had a run in with something as his 
long  tail 
feathers have broken off.
 
After they left, I headed north toward Reelfoot, stopping time and time  
again at dried up spots that just weeks before held water and birds.  Believe 
me 
it is dry everywhere. The Mississippi's last rise fell just short of  flooding 
much habitat. The only other shorebirds for the weekend were at a  hole off 
the Great River Road in Dyer Co, that held 6 White-rumped, 1  Semipalmated 
Plover and Killdeer. The  Ibis Hole in Lake Co, had 23  White-rumped and a 
single 
Semipalmated Sandpiper.
 
An unusual and stunningly different male Indigo was found Saturday  afternoon 
at White Lake Refuge in Dyer Co. The bird was bright blue but sported  a pure 
white throat patch, a single white wing bar on one side and a solid white  
tail. I returned again to find it on Sunday but could only get two very distant 
 
shots. Unexpected finds were a pair of American Wigeon, we had seen the male 
a  couple of weeks ago and he can fly quite well but this female has a busted 
right  wing. Even more unexpected were 3 full dress male Ring-necked Ducks!!  
A group of 13 American White Pelicans were seen there on Sunday. I  lucked up 
on a docile Gray Rat Snake crossing the road at White-Lake. I was able  to 
pick it up by the body and get it to relax then stretched out between two  
marks 
and measured its length at 68 inches.
 
At 10 AM Sunday, I found a Barred Owl sunning out in the middle of the road  
on Tenn-Mo Levee and an hour or so later a Black Vulture standing in the 
middle  of the road at Black Bayou with out stretched wings looking like he was 
 
directing traffic. I could find very few Grasshopper Sparrows even in places  
that they usually are fairly regular but the wind may have been a  factor. That 
did not stop the Dickcissels from singing everywhere in good  numbers. I saw 
Osprey at 3 locations along the river and 4 immature Bald Eagles  on the river 
at Heloise in Dyer Co.. There are some small rookeries of egrets  and herons 
in Dyer and Lake Counties but nothing the size or the diversity of  years past. 
This has been so since the drought years. I saw only 9 Little Blue  Herons 
over the weekend but there were quite a few Snowy Egrets at White  Lake..  
Great 
Egrets are nesting in big numbers in Dyer and Lake Counties  with a few Snowy 
and Little Blue crossing the river to feed young in Missouri.  The rookeries 
that were active last year out from Morris Road in Lauderdale Co,  and off 79 
Highway in Lake County did not develop this year.
 
I got a few photos of most of the birds mentioned above and have posted  them 
at the following site. Sorry for the poor shots of the blue and white  Indigo 
but maybe next time...........Try:
 
_http://www.pbase.com/ol_coot/june_shots_ 
(http://www.pbase.com/ol_coot/june_shots) 
 
 
Good  Birding!!!
Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett,  TN


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