In a message dated 5/24/2004 1:43:30 PM Central Standard Time, jay.desgrosellier@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: Both Chris and I noted that the numbers of herons and egrets present in the area appear larger than those found in previous springs, especially CATTLE EGRETS, SNOWY EGRETS and LITTLE BLUE HERONS. Cattle Egrets in particular were everywhere. We estimated their numbers at 300+ on the day. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> The smaller egrets and herons are recuperating from the devastation of the drought years, when they failed to get back this far north and breed due to lack of feeding areas between the coast and Reelfoot during the normal spring migration. Few even showed up in those years in the summer and fall during the expected post breeding dispersal. Although we were hard hit in TN there was an even dryer belt below us with no standing water or wet fields in the vast delta area. The numbers of Snowy and Little Blue are still less than half the numbers counted in the years prior to the drought but rebuilding year by year with this year considerably better than last. Even then the numbers seem large but we lost extensive habitat when so much land was drained and cleared during the dry years, in reality we are seeing fewer birds still but in concentration due to less habitat. The Cattle Egret numbers are much the same as previous years from what I've been counting trading in and out of the rookeries. They use to use the rookeries and roosts on the River but fed away from the delta and mostly in the hills with the cattle to the east. This year they are feeding in the fields in the delta. A phenomena that we have talked about but not figured out why yet. There must be a lot of insects this year and we did walk up a lot of large grasshoppers Saturday, in fact one flew up and hit me in the head and liked to have knocked me down;o) Except when the Cattle Egrets were going out or returning in the evening, we would search hard for a one during the day but not this year. I have counted well over 1000 in various fields recently. On some of the roost counts that I did a few years back, you could see 7-10,000 returning in an evening. There are 4 rookeries along the river that I have tracked down recently and I hope to get close enough to record what numbers and surprises they might hold. 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================