June 26-27, 2004 McKellar Lake/Ensley Bottoms Shelby Co. TN On Saturday, I had a distant hooded gull on McKellar Lake that I thought was a Laughing Gull but the bird was too far away. The wing cadence looked good for Laughing over Franklin's. Sunday, lo and behold the bird was wading around and feeding in one of the pits. I got pretty good shots of this 2nd year bird. On Saturday and Sunday mornings the two Least Sandpipers found last weekend were feeding in the exact same two pools within a few feet of their positions used last weekend. Finally, late Sunday I located 6 more Least Sandpipers in another pit. The ratty looking Greater Scaup stood again for photos before it decided to fly. The pair of Shoveler ducks no longer dote on one another as they both molt into something more comfortable. I just could not will that nesting to happen. The male Blue-winged Teal is also in pitiful shape and the female is down to only one or two young which she keeps hidden quite well. You have to sneak up on her which is hard to do with all the racket the Black-necked Stilts raise whenever you come around anywhere on the pits. Their young are scattered about in all sizes. The mother of the year award goes to a Mallard hen at the pits. Last week I saw her with 14 equal sized young and Sunday I found her again and she still has 14, now much larger young, in tow. A pair of Loggerhead Shrikes are feeding young in a nest that produced earlier in the season. This week, I've had 3 Cooper's Hawk sightings. Two in Memphis and one just east of Collierville. I photographed a group of 4 immature Yellow-crowned Night-Herons hanging out at a nest in the front yard of a home in Southaven. 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================