July 18, 2004 Chickasaw NWR Lauderdale Co. TN Fulton Co. KY Among the numerous Herons and Egrets at Chickasaw, I located and photographed an immature White Ibis early Sunday, hiding back in the brush. Post breeding dispersal of immature waders is evidently getting on the way so be on alert. The numbers were down slightly but Great Egrets still out number the combined counts of Great Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, Little Blue Herons, Cattle Green Heron and a single 2nd year plumaged Black-Crowned Night-Heron. For mid July in the delta, it was like a spring walk, temps started in the 70's and a light north breeze. Two Bald Eagles were seen, one bird of this years vintage and a 2nd year bird soared over at different times. Immature Red-shouldered and Red-tailed Hawks were given fits by resident blackbirds and Fish Crows when they dared to venture out over the open areas. A Kestrel made a quick crossing of the wetlands and had the smaller shorebirds in the air a couple of times. This made counting much easier and I appreciate his efforts. No, Black-necked Stilts were seen on this trip, they may have escorted their young to less crowded feeding areas. Only Mallards, Woodies and Hoodies were noted in the waterfowl group. American White Pelicans lolled around in one compound with 81 total. The shorebird list on the 3 hour walk consisted of: Killdeer - 537, Semipalmated Sandpiper -1, Greater Yellowlegs- 1, Lesser Yellowlegs - 1, Solitary Sandpiper - 1, Spotted Sandpiper - 5, Semipalmated Sandpiper - 21, Western Sandpiper - 4 (one male in bright plumage I photographed, had the shortest bill I've ever seen on a Western, short billed males in basic plumage are one of the real challenges and many are overlooked - study, study, study structure and feathers, I'll share photos to those interested), Least Sandpiper - 197, Pectoral Sandpiper - 68, Stilt Sandpiper - 1 and Short-billed Dowitcher - 1 is bright breeding plumage. After the walk, a quick run to the north found very little habitat and few birds were seen, there is little to no habitat at White Lake Refuge or along the Great River Road, Mud Lake and Phillippy have all but dried up. Late, in Fulton Co. KY, I watched in fascination as Cliff Swallows flew in from every direction until one field was almost covered. There was only an occasional swallow of the other species but all were recorded. I tried to photograph the congregation but the distance prevented doing the numbers justice. I've seen larger numbers of Tree Swallows collect on the river later in the year but this was the largest number of Cliffs I've ever seen at one time, bar none. An estimate of 3,000 was about as close as I could come after blocking off sections two or three times. Occasionally they would boil up into the blue sky and reminded me of the huge flocks of Lapland Longspurs seen in north Mississippi during the winter. This was group small compared to the huge roosts or hundreds of thousands I've seen in Mexico and on the Mississippi, Louisiana Gulf Coast but for around here it was a spectacle. In another field a pair of Black-necked Stilts held close to a nest hidden in a field. Both were photographed through the scope with their necks stuck above the vegetation during a change of nest duties. This nest will hatch this week. 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================