Highlights of a hot day spent along the river. I struck out on shorebirds (other than Killdeer) with the exception of a pair of Black-necked Stilts at the Phillippy Pits. The hope of a returning shorebird or two, along with White Ibis for the year, was the main draw to the river today. The waders more than made up for the shorebirds eluding me (there's always next week!). My 1st surprise for the day was a brief but good look at an adult Common Moorhen from the levee behind the pumphouse at Black Bayou. The bird was working the edge of the heavy cover, and was seen briefly several times as it appeared and then disappeared back into the cover. I walked the mud down to the water's edge hoping for a photo op, or maybe a glimpse of young, but to no avail. Mark Greene saw a Moorhen back in May within a 1/2 mile of the location I had the bird today, so it's probably been in the area the whole time. The amount of habitat in the area offers ample hiding places for this bird, even though there have been a lot of trips made back into this area. The Pied-billed Grebes at Black Bayou seem to have done well, I encountered several striped-headed youngsters today. As Jeff mentioned in his post, the female Scissor-tailed Flycatcher is still sitting on the nest, and in the few minutes I was there never left. I didn't see the male, but I wasn't there long. Ken Leggett, Nancy Moore, and myself went in Ken's Gator out to Island 13 for a scouting trip. Habitat looks good if it holds up, all we need are the shorebirds. Least Terns are all over the area. The highlight of the day was the waders. As previously mentioned by others, Whites Lake is covered with Little Blue Herons and Great Egrets, with large concentrations of Great Egrets seen all along the levee. The other expected waders were represented as well, by various numbers. I drove the road out at Whites Lake with Ken and Betty Leggett, searching for the White Ibis that were seen there both yesterday and earlier today (Ken and Nancy had 4 there this morning). At times it looked like a blizzard with so many white birds in the air, but no White Ibis. I finally decided late this afternoon to walk the woodland trail into the observation platform. After several minutes of going back and forth through the birds both in the trees and in the pools, I finally found a single juvenile White Ibis. The bird was feeding in the heavy cover in the back side of the pools across the levee road from the platform. I watched the bird for about 30 minutes before it disappeared into the tall cover. I have a decent shot of the bird if anyone's interested. Hopefully before long we'll have Wood Storks and maybe a Plegadis Ibis or two in the area! On a local note, Eurasian Collared-Doves are now reliable at two spots in McKenzie that I know of, and I saw one for the 1st time today near Gleason in Weakley Co., the expansion continues. Good birding!!!!!! Mike Todd McKenzie, TN Carroll Co. mikectodd@xxxxxx =================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. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================