Oct. 13, 2007 Ensley Bottoms Shelby Co. TN Wapanocca NWR Crittenden Co. AR Two extended, morning and afternoon,?trips to the pits produced an adult Peregrine, the ever present multiple Kestrels and a female Merlin. I see quite a few Merlin in migration feeding along on dragonflies as they travel south along the bluff but I've only had a couple stop to chase shorebirds. The female yesterday spent 3 hours harassing everyone. She lived up to their reputation by diving on and chasing one of the two calurus Red-tails off its perch, she then dived on a coursing Harrier, chased a migrating Broad-wing and one of the resident Red-shouldered. As I was photographing her she started ducking and I looked up to find a feisty immature male Kestrel repeatedly diving on the Merlin until she gave up the perch and was escorted away from the pits. But she was back chasing shorebirds in 15 minutes. Among the hordes of Least Sandpipers, I found a single molting, immature Western, 2 Dunlin, 6 Pectorals, 12 Lesser Yellowlegs, Killdeer?and 2 Long-billed Dowitchers. White Pelicans swarmed in the afternoon with dwindling numbers of Great Egrets and a few dozen DC Cormorants. A midday run to Wapanocca produced an almost dry bed at the lake with tons of birds. At first, I could find no Stilt Sandpipers but a Peregrine stirred the pot and over 100 Stilt Sandpipers appeared from the cover and began to feed out in front of the observation platform, quite a large number for this late in the season. Two Bald Eagles, a Harrier, Red-tails and traveling Broad-wings made the list. The wing damaged Pelican had the off and on company of up to 12 brothers while 65 circled heading south. There was a single Great Egret left as the huge numbers have left since last week and it also has a broken wing. Large numbers of Green-winged Teal have added to the huge mixed flock of ducks and Coots hugging the last water in the lake. I think we are losing a great gem here in the Delta to the drought and poor planning by USFW. There has been no manager at Wapanocca for months. Jeff R. Wilson Ol'Coot / TLBA Bartlett, TN ________________________________________________________________________ Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! - http://mail.aol.com =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ 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 ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________