[TN-Bird] Sunday Report - Ensley-Mud Island
- From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 31 Aug 2004 07:07:01 EDT
August 29, 2004
Mud Island
Ensley Bottoms
Shelby Co. TN
The Mississippi River is again rising a foot a day and will rise over 12-14
feet before it is done. This pretty much will wipe out the sand bars but might
get a few of the rarer shorebirds to use the pits.
At Mud Island on Sunday, I counted 13 Caspian Terns, 7 Forster's and 9 Least
with an adult Ring-billed Gull. The were a few egrets and herons but no
shorebirds other than Killdeer. The tremendous numbers of Chimney Swifts
usually
seen at this time of the year are building along with all swallow species
feeding
over the river. One adult Caspian briefly sat on TVA Lake while 4 or 5 Least
plunge fed.
In between checking TVA Lake for the Mottled Duck, I enjoyed the largest
concentration of Wind Birds this season but with only 17 species seen over the
weekend. The rain changed the mix over night Saturday and I could not believe
the
numbers had increased so much on Sunday. On Saturday we had a Black-bellied
Plover in a bright gold immature plumage while on Sunday there was a slightly
molted adult. We had heard a Golden Plover on Saturday but never could confirm
its presence but I photographed a molting adult Sunday. The 3 Wilson's
Phalarope were still present and the 2 adult Ruddy Turnstones had been joined
by an
immature bird.
As I said before, the Black-necked Stilts have started to move out, 2 Greater
Yellowlegs were put down by the storms and were on TVA Lake Sunday. The
dominate age group in both Lesser Yellowlegs and Stilt Sandpipers were the
pretty
spiffy immature birds. The numbers of Semipalmated Sandpipers was down with
almost no adults and Western Sandpiper numbers are high, the highest in years
and
only 2 adults were detected in the mob. Least Sandpiper numbers are growing
fast and there are quite a few fiery immatures but their numbers are slightly
lower than normal from my counts.
An adult Baird's Sandpiper was hanging out in the crowd both days but I could
find no Buff-breasted in the fields but muddy roads kept me out of some of
the back areas.
A couple of immature Cooper's kept the Wind Birds on their toes both days. I
witnessed two unsuccessful attacks as these young birds tried surprise
approaches by flying low and jumping over the levees into the concentrations.
They
should stay with hunting the Mourning Doves as I've only seen one rewarded
assault over the years when an immature Coop took a Least Sandpiper right in
front
of me one morning.
Good Birding!!!
Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett, TN
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