May 5, 2007 Ensley Bottoms Shelby Co, TN Mike Todd and I were doing a little recon today and looked up over the bluff area at the Pits and could not believe what we saw. Kites were everywhere, multiple counts kept the numbers going higher and higher. I get large concentrations in the fall with adults and immature birds, ganging up in feeding flock of over 100 birds, but our counts today kept rising. In the Spring 20-30 is a pretty good count but today shattered all our previous high numbers, ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY + KITES in view in one sweep. You know that some were behind the tree tops so we will never know just how many passed this one area today. Also in this mass, we found Black and Turkey Vultures, Red-shouldered Hawk and a single Common Nighthawk. The Painted Bunting found us today west of the treatment plant in Ensley Bottoms, it came down and sat above us, singing a whisper song, pretty cool!! Also down in Mississippi, we ran up on 2 Upland Sandpipers plus one flock of 100+ gurgling Bobolinks. Last but not least at Arkabutla Lake, we had a long study of an adult plumaged CALIFORNIA GULL from the north end of the parking lot, north of the dam. Good Birding !!! Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA 6298 Memphis-Arlington Road Bartlett, TN 38135 http://www.pbase.com/ol_coot/ What is this feathered thing that lifts my heart to the heavens. ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ 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 ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________