[TN-Bird] Upland Sandpipers / West TN

March 26-27, 2005
Shelby/Tipton Co.
 
I hit wet spots in Shelby and Tipton Counties over the weekend. It is  
amazing how all the fields can look the same but the histories of producing  
birds 
can be so different. Looking closely you can see the subtle clues  that once, 
there had been back water or a slough with a reserve of iron  rich material 
from generations of blood worms that provides food for  shorebirds, year after 
year. Keeping exact records of which portions of  certain fields produced 
shorebirds was given verification by a map produced  few years back that 
recorded 
the mineral reflectivity from space. Each of my  favorite honey holes showed up 
on the image in dark maroon,  verifying that these birds have perfect memories 
and re cognitive abilities as  to where the food will be even if the terrain 
has been radically altered by  man. 
 
I wondered for years why in certain short grass fields Golden-Plovers only  
used exact areas. Time and time again during migration new flocks would come in 
 and settle or work to the same areas. On my hands and knees the truth was  
revealed as in those areas the worm castings were dense. This can be very 
easily  seen by flying plovers trying to make a living.
 
Shorebirds galore are moving through the region, as the weather changed,  
many were forced down to wait out the storms. Saturday, I visited a lot of  
lowlands in Tipton Co. along the river and at the exact same place as last 
year,  I 
flushed 2 Upland Sandpipers near the Hatchie Bottoms west of 51 Highway.  I 
had hundreds of Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs with more Lesser than Greater  
unlike last weekend, when the reverse was true. Pectoral numbers for the day 
ran 
 672 with only a sprinkling of Least, 23 Wilson's Snipe and only one small  
group of 4 American Golden-Plovers.
 
Sunday afternoon, I finally made it back to Shelby Farms just after a  strong 
rush of rain. I first searched for Uplands in a field they have been  regular 
in for years but no luck; I had missed them all week. One wet area was  
productive with 79 Pectoral Sandpipers, 46 Wilson's Snipe and 3 Lesser  
Yellowlegs. 
Another round of searching broad fields finally produced 3 Upland  Sandpipers 
in a far corner of their favorite field, it grows smaller year  to year as 
more and more of the area becomes accessible to weekend foot traffic.   
Good  Birding!!!

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



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