April 3, 2004 Ensley Bottoms, Eagle Lake Refuge Shelby Co, TN I've been blessed for the second time in my birding life to watch an Anhinga in a display flight. After birding Ensley in the morning, I went to Eagle Lake and with the great vista and river location, I scanned the sky. After picking up only strings, vees, soaring and bunches of Double-crested Cormorants rushing north, (a continuation of birds seen at Ensley and over the river front) I picked up only a couple of traveling raptors, 3 Harriers hunting over the fields and a few resident Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks plus a feisty male Kestrel. A distant, black dot peaked my interest as it slowly soared in tight circles and drifted up and to the east. It was too far for an ID at that point but it was too different to leave because it gave me the impression of being large. It was hard to keep up with and I'd lose it from time to time, it never once batted its wings but finally it did a signature move. It turned at the top and went into a long, straight glide, right to the area of the Great Blue Rookery. I jumped in the truck and drove closer and after a 30 minute wait, I was treated again to a male Anhinga and a repeat of the show. Evidently they are going to nest again in the rookery here in Shelby County!! Dry conditions through out the area, where most fields have been prepped for planting, gives few places for shorebirds to rest and feed. As expected there were but a sprinkling of shorebirds at Eagle Lake Refuge, 6 Greater and 3 Lesser Yellowlegs, 6 Pectoral Sandpipers and 16 Least. A few Wilson's Snipe were flushed from one area and a group of 21 Pectoral buzzed low over the area for 5 minutes but found nothing to their liking and angled up and went north. Killdeer were attending 3 scrapes with a full clutch in one and 2 eggs in another. From watching the Legs I could tell there were high flying birds riding the winds north all morning, in the afternoon they were less interested or the movement had passed. In the morning at TVA Lake in Ensley, there was not one Scaup but there were my "Wind Birds", 5 Lesser Yellowlegs, 62 Pectoral Sandpipers, 41 Least Sandpipers, Killdeer and a pair of Black-necked Stilts. The settling ponds of course will not produce much until they bloom later in April through June in this migration but the other small pools held 14 Lesser Yellowlegs, 6 Greater, 17 Pectoral, 38 Least Sandpipers, 9 Wilson's Snipe and 3 more pair of Black-necked Stilts with the males sporting coral red legs. One species I've been looking for all week to show up at Shelby Farms was a no show here also, Upland Sandpiper. There was a movement of swallows with all present except Bank. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL'COOT / TLBA Bartlett, TN =================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. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================