[TN-Bird] October Blows In

  • From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
  • To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 3 Oct 2004 07:22:04 EDT

October 2, 2004
Ensley Bottoms, TVA Lake
Mississippi River
Shelby Co. TN


An early morning visit to Mud Island revealed a steady wind and only a single 
Horned Grebe riding the high, fast flowing current south. With no sandbars in 
sight the picken's are slim but the river has started another fall after a 17 
foot rise, I just need a few feet of sand for the birds to rest on. At TVA 
Lake the scene was just as bare on the first visit but the pits provided a lot 
of Wind Birds to pick through. The wind was relentless out of the north, 190 
degrees from the previous afternoon.

There did appear to be a few more birds present with a couple of species new 
or others more numerous. Nice views of the immature female Wilson's Phalarope, 
immature Semipalmated Plovers, Western and Semi-sands plus two Wilson's Snipe 
were had. There was one interesting peep that just stayed too far out to 
reveal its true identity but that is what keeps you coming back.

A small bird flitted into the grass and we flushed it out into the open and 
saw a nice dark Savannah Sparrow my first for the season but I thought I had 
flushed one off the road last week. The shorebirds were nervous and flushed 
time 
and time again for no apparent reason but they knew for better than I what 
was in the air. Kestrels were everywhere and a Cooper's was escorted out of the 
area by a ball of trailing Starlings. Three Pintails and a Blue-winged Teal 
flushed ahead of us off one of the ditches, Pintails RULE...........

I tried Mud Island again at lunch and found the north wind had started to 
produce, as a large dark mass of ducks in an eddy turned into 354 plus 
Shoveler, 
5 Pintail and a Pied-billed Grebe. The wind was still too much for anything 
more than ducks to be flying so I returned to Ensley.

Ensley again produced, at TVA in the mix were Wigeon, Pintail, Gadwall, 
Shoveler, Wood Ducks and Mallard plus 4 Long-billed Dowitchers in basic 
plumage. In 
the first pit there was an immature Black-bellied Plover and farther back 
were 9 more Long-billed Dowitchers sleeping in a gray mound. The numbers of 
shorebirds is still impressive and I think there will be more Sunday. On top of 
that the shorebirds kept pointing out high flying raptors and I ended up with 8 
Broad-winged, 2 Red-shouldered, Kestrels, a Merlin and a kettle of 9 Black 
Vultures all sailing south under the watchful eyes of my keen spotters.

Bring it on October.............


Good Birding!!!

Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett, TN


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