June 13, 2003 Randolph, TN on the Mississippi River Tipton Co. TN I spent 3 hours in the rain and sunshine Sunday morning, sitting on the Mississippi River watching the terns. My count on Saturday was voided when at first a Kestrel flew over the island and then a Cattle Egret made the mistake of trying to land on this large island. Both times masses of Least Terns filled the air. There is no telling how many birds are nesting there. Unfortunately the island is just across from a boat ramp and it will be used extensively by the boaters and campers as soon as the river recedes a little more. The birds will have little success after the invasion. They have been stymied so far this year with the rising and falling of the river at inopportune times and looks like they are headed for another setback, not of their making. The river has crested and is now moving down and will fall 20 or more feet. The wind had changed directions and the birds fed heading down stream rather than up and they concentrated south of the island rather than north. This put a lot of them out of sight and most at a greater distance than when viewed on Saturday. I was there an hour before I saw my first Black Tern and then another as they just appeared sitting on the north side of the island. This indicated that they had been feeding out of sight on the far side and down river. That meant the other tern could still be around and I spent another 2 hours sitting and scanning but only saw one Black Tern in flight north of the island. I traveled the river up to Tiptonville and checked out the lower part of Reelfoot Lake before heading back. No migrant shorebirds were seen but 7 pair of Black-necked Stilts were found at various locations in Dyer and Lake Counties. Check out your terns!!!!! 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================