Oct. 16, 2004 Mud Island, McKellar Lake Ensley Pits Shelby Co. TN Early and late visits to Mud Island produced, hundreds of Coots floating the Mississippi and among these were 3 Green-winged Teal and 3 Pied-billed Grebes. On the sandbars there was little activity with a few Least and the regular Killdeer along with 7 Am. White Pelicans loafing on a small spit of sand. Most of the Chimney Swifts have disappeared and Saturday and Sunday where ever I looked, there was a steady stream of Rough-winged with a few Tree Swallows heading south. On McKellar Lake there were 62 Ring-billed Gulls, 3 Herring and 103 White Pelicans. The Mallards have been joined by Ruddy and Lesser Scaup. At TVA Lake it looks like the immature Black-necked Stilt finally headed south but the injured Snowy is looking toward a bleak winter stay. There was one Ring-necked Duck that traded between the lake and the pits, one of 12 species of waterfowl seen in the area. On the sod fields was a single late immature Cattle Egret sporting a dark bill. The pits were alive with activity, birds were dropping in and leaving all morning providing one of the higher counts of the season. It again looked like Little Creek in Delaware, just covered up with shorebirds. High numbers for quite a few of the 14 species with Killdeer, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Westerns, Least, Baird's, Pectoral, large number of molting immature Dunlin, Stilt Sandpipers, Long-billed Dowitchers, Wilson's Snipe and a lone Wilson's Phalarope. As usual there were some unexpected plumages and birds with features that were extreme making for good study time and a few photos showing the variability of my Wind Birds. 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================