[TN-Bird] West TN Mixed Bag

May 22, 2004
Shelby, Dyer and Lake Co. TN

When I talked to Mike Todd on Friday evening he decided to stay north and I 
to the south, my bad. My last words to him were to watch for the terns as it 
was getting close to Arctic Time.

I went to Eagle Lake to work my way south to Ensley. At Eagle, I had a single 
male Anhinga soaring over the north tree line and upset a King Rail which I 
think was on a nest as it stayed close to me rattling its feathers and raising 
a ruckus. I retreated from the area ASAP. The gates were locked at the parking 
lot as usual so most of the good areas are a long hot hike.

On my way south, I got the call from Mike and turned myself around. As Mike 
has related we searched the area thoroughly for the Gull-billed Tern but no 
prize and I left there about 8 PM last night to head home.

The trip was worth it as I had 3 Whimbrel fly into to the huge field north of 
103. When I first picked these birds up in the distance flying, I thought 
they were hen ducks but they were small and all the Green-wings should have 
been 
gone. This is the second time multiple Whimbrel have fooled me into thinking 
they were ducks at a distance. When they finally turned I saw the sharp wings 
and the flash off the bills before they landed stretched and disappeared. We 
flushed a Great Horned Owl out of a skimpy line of trees in the middle of one 
large field.

In searching the area in the afternoon, we found only 1 Caspian Tern on the 
River along with the 4 Sanderling. After Mike left, I reran the wet holes south 
of 103 highway and had; Killdeer, 2 Semipalmated Plovers, 1 Greater 
Yellowlegs to add to the 2 in the field that Mike and I got north of 103, 2 
Lesser 
Yellowlegs, 7 Least Sandpipers, 34 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 9 White-rumped 
Sandpipers, and 1 Dunlin. A hen Greater Scaup was found in the large pool south 
of 
103, victim of the hunting season I would guess.

In two other holes farther south on the Great River Road, I had Killdeer, 1 
Spotted Sandpiper, 1 L. Yellowlegs, 1 Least Sandpiper and 4 Semi-Sands and 6 
Semi-plovers, 2 Least and 2 Semipalmated Sandpipers and a single Forster's Tern 
made the heart race for a minute in the afternoon sun. Total species of 
shorebirds for the day only 10.


Good Birding!!!

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


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