April 11, 2005 Crittenden Co. AR Ensley Bottoms, Shelby Co. TN The concentration of shorebirds continues in the rice fields in Crittenden Co. Mike Todd and I started the day taking a couple from the UK to search for birds at Wapanocca NWR. Birding was very slow in the woods but we eeked out quite a few on the want list. We went to the rice fields to the west and found even more Golden-Plovers than I had on Saturday. Mike and I estimate between 3-4000 in the area after seeing numerous flocks of 2-300 birds trading about these huge fields and doing quick counts of concentrations. Since we were on a mission we did not tarry but all the other species were still present and in greater numbers I believe, Baird's and Dunlin were less concentrated but strewn about and I'd bet you could have upped my Saturday count on both. The surprise of the day was when I swung my scope around to a distant heron thinking it was another Little Blue as we had seen our "first of season" just an hour earlier. To my dismay there sat an adult Tri-colored Heron. I've had these birds nesting once in TN and I'd bet a good search might produce other nests here along the MS RV. Photos were taken of the most unexpected bird of the day. We did find more FOS birds like a stunning Scarlet Tanager but the birds scattered. At Memphis we got as the Brits would say, "cracking looks at a male Painted Bunting", up close and personal until four wheelers ran the bird off. They got their life Painted Bunting and have never seen an Indigo Bunting as we never saw or heard one all day! We had Red-shouldered, and Red-tailed Hawk young in nests plus two fuzzy Great Horned Owlets. Even in the wind with Mike's ears and 4 sets of eyes searching, we ended the day with 107 species and a lot of big misses but many delightful finds. 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================