Sept. 19, 2004 West TN and Eastern Ark. I meant to write this on the weekend post but ran out of time this AM. While up around the rice fields near Reelfoot over the weekend, I was surprised that much of the harvesting has been done. This goes along with the other crops being harvested early here in the mid-south. We had a relatively dry early spring and then a rainy period and then relatively dry again allowing for quick planting, fast growing season and therefore an early harvest. Most of the cotton has be sprayed with defoliant, the corn has been combined, plowed under and most fields ready to seed with winter crops, a large amount of soybeans are already in the storage bins and evidently most of the rice. It was harvested too early for there to be much in the way of migrant rails and the fields are way too dry to hold any big number of these birds anyway. I decided to ride back south through Arkansas on Sunday and after crossing the I-155 bridge to Missouri, I could see smoke rising to the south and sure enough harvested rice fields are already being burned off. I'd say 50% or better had been harvested but there again it was too early and way to dry for rails. I sat for a total of an hour at 3 locations being combined and my "dry tire" rule worked. Dry tires on combines = no rails, but I did see about a dozen Bobolinks and a single Long-billed Marsh Wren. The best railing is just after the first of October and then if there is any rice left you need a wet field which might be very difficult to find. Not so good news for rails and birders but that is the best I could come up with............ I keep waiting for the stars and planets to line up and another year when hundreds of rails would grace our field glasses again but evidently, not this year :o( 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================