[TN-Bird] Shorebird Run

March 27-28, 2004
Dyer and Lake Co. TN

Saturday and Sunday, I checked out all the old reliable areas for shorebirds. 
Besides the ever present and numerous Killdeer I found; 9 Golden Plover, 311 
Greater Yellowlegs, 315 Lesser Yellowlegs, 36 Least Sandpipers, 773 Pectoral 
Sandpiper, 173 Wilson's Snipe, 2 Long-billed Dowitcher and finally a species 
I've been looking for all week, 2 male Black-necked Stilts in Dyer Co, both 
sporting brightly colored legs ready for the females to show.

Those seem like pretty good numbers but they are far, far below what they 
should be. The Mississippi River rose 20 feet in 8 days and dropped 16 in the 
next week. The lack of rain and the river falling has left a lot of areas that 
are normally wet, completely dry and farmers are rapidly preparing to plant. 
The 
river has had no sustained highs this winter and we have had spotty rain but 
that is not the reason these wet areas are dry. What we are seeing are the 
effects of the drought a few years back. That long drought let wetlands that 
had 
not been dry enough to get into and ditch for years, allowed drainage channels 
to be cut and many low areas where trees held water were cut over and 
drained. Secondary levees have been installed in many fields that have never 
had them 
before and shorebird habitat is the first to suffer.

The river might get up again or we could get heavy rains and temporary 
habitat might save the day but many of the old wetlands are gone.

My first of the year, Cattle Egrets and Little Blue Herons showed up along 
with a few other birds of interest. A rufous morph Red-tailed was seen at mile 
marker 6 on the Great River Road and a Western Red-tail was photographed off 
highway 104. An adult Peregrine Falcon had cleared house at White Lake refuge. 
There were a lot of Harriers seen, with many patrolling the water edges looking 
for Green-winged Teal, one of their favorite prey at this time of the year. 
Most of the large ducks pay little attention to these Harriers but the 
Green-winged hurry off at the drop of a Harrier. Fourteen Harriers went to 
roost in a 
field west of Bogota but no Short-eared Owls were seen. 

A pair of Western Meadowlarks was seen just over the line in KY with the male 
in full song as he followed the female around. I had a great surprise at the 
Bald Eagles nest in KY on the levee but I'll post about that later.


Good Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett, TN


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