July 4, 2003 Ensley Bottoms, Robco Lake, North Lake Mud Lake, MS, RV levee in MS Eagle Lake, Tipton Co. Now the adult Western Kingbirds are feeding young at both nests. I still see only two fairly large young in the first nest which is in the exact location of last years nest. At the second nest, after much looking from many, many angles, I finally saw 3 small heads pop up to accept food. Today's count stands at nine with the possibility of one or two more. Over 20 Mississippi kites were hunting over the main area of nesting Black-necked Stilts with little or no reaction from the parents. Evidently none of the kites have taken a liking to BNS young. Last year for the first time since I had been watching these young BNS (20 years), one or two of the kites took to feeding on them. Maybe this year that will not happen. Nothing particular in the area except a lot of Grasshopper Sparrows singing along one stretch of levee in Mississippi. At Eagle Lake, 18 Mississippi Kites and a few Great Egrets were seen. In Tipton Co. I found one Acadian FC feeding fledged young and another sitting on a nest hanging over the road. Not much seen on the just emerging sandbars on the Mississippi except Least Sandpipers doing a lot of fish trading. One DC Cormorant flew north as far as I could watch and turned around and proceeded to fly south just over the river till it disappeared, just cruising on the Fourth is all I can figure. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL' COOT / TLBA Bartlett Tenn. =================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. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================