[TN-Bird] Shorebirds Returning / Nesting sites

June 24-25, 2006
Shelby Co. TN
 
I got out for half a day both Saturday and Sunday. I usually get out around  
the 21st of June to welcome the first returning Least Sandpipers but this year 
I  was nailed down so to speak.
 
Anyway, on Saturday I watched as 3 Least Sandpipers flew down the  
Mississippi River and fluttered down for a brief rest on a sandbar before  
hurrying 
south. Over in AR at a large wet spot left by a summer storm, I found 4  more 
least. Later I found a Lesser Yellowlegs at the pits in Ensley Bottoms  and 
found 
the bird again on Sunday. The spigot is open and the birds are on  their way 
back.........
 
Black-necked Stilts at the pits are having a good nesting year  after a lower 
than normal number (in recent times) last year. Their  selection of nesting 
sites is all over the board as I photographed nests out on  the open flats in 
the ponds, some snuggled up to little hammocks of vegetation,  some in the 
middle of freshly plowed areas in the spread fields and one smack  dab in the 
middle of one of the roads. 
 
The female on the last nest jumped up and tried a Mexican stand off  with my 
truck. She ran up to my truck to within 10 feet and tried to bluff me  away. 
If you have seen the famous photo of the Lapwing successfully  bluffing a large 
male African Elephant away from a nest, that is what  this scene felt like. 
 
I photographed one Black-necked Stilt nest as the young were  hatching, 2 of 
the young already had taken up with Dad while another stayed  close to Mom as 
she waited for the last of the brood to hatch.  
 
 
 
Good Birding  !!!
Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA
6298 Memphis-Arlington Road
Bartlett, TN  38135


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