May 26 and 28, 2005 Ensley Bottoms Shelby Co. TN I met Mike O'Malley, from Clarksville TN, Thursday evening down at the pits and we were treated to at least 3 Painted Buntings with one perched within feet of a male Baltimore Oriole. That was one bunch of color! Shorebirds were down into the hundreds, mostly Semipalmated Sandpipers but there were a few Dunlin, Least, White-rumped, 1 Solitary Sandpiper, 1 Lesser Yellowlegs and Semipalmated Plovers. Black-necked Stilt nests numbered about 25 active with a couple having week old young feeding. The Western Kingbird has now completed her nest and is waiting on a full clutch to start setting. It appears this might be the only nest this year after such a great number last year. The Shrike predation just may be too much right around the plant. The Kestrels are staying close to their nest but have not started feeding young. Common Nighthawks can be seen out at all times of the day as they are feeding young and at dusk we were treated to an unexpected Osprey that tried to land on one of the tall towers but failed and winged its way south. On Saturday, I met an AR birder working on his TN list and we ticked off quite a few species but had to work to get a single Painted Bunting. The Western Kingbird was sitting on her nest as was the female Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on President's Island. We had a Sharp-shinned Hawk at Ensley and I had 2 Cooper's at different locations in Memphis. Early that morning, I was searching an old area where I had previously seen Grasshopper Sparrows, when a small sparrow came up out of the wet grass. The bird was pretty far away but was too dark and colorful for a Grasshopper. My first thought was a late LeConte's but that also seemed wrong. I got one photo and my last look gave me the impression of a Henslow's Sparrow. I just don't see enough of them to know them well, especially when wet. Needless to say I could not get the bird back up after it flew back down into the grass. I'll check the bird again and have sent the photo around to others more familiar with the species. I'll post it on my Spring Page soon. The shorebird numbers were about the same as Thursday's but there were now 3 Lesser Yellowlegs and only a single Dunlin. The best shorebirds were to come later on the MS River! I spent some time in the afternoon searching the river which is cresting again after a 10 foot rise. It just doesn't look good for the sandbar birds again this year. I had a few Caspian Terns feeding off of Mud Island and Least Terns were seen on McKellar Lake. On the upper end of the Loosahatchie Bar, I had the best birds of the day, along with a pair of Black-necked Stilts were TWO Whimbrel striding the sand. 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================