April 29, 2005 Wapanocca NWR - Crittenden Co, AR Ensley Bottoms - Shelby Co. TN Mike Todd and I, joined Paul Lehman from New Jersey, as he makes a round robin trip through MO-KY-TN-MS-AR-LA-OK, etc to work on his state lists. Even with all the bad weather we managed 137 species today. The ducks which were thick at Ensley just the other day had pulled out and headed north and we only managed 5 waterfowl species on the day. The Mottled could not be found and all the many Shoveler and Gadwall had also flown the coop. A Common Loon at Robco Lake was an unexpected find as was a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron standing in the median on I-55. We visited the Pits at Ensley, twice today and found nearly 5,000 Wind Birds to pick through. This afternoon, at the pits, we watch in amazement when an American Bittern caught and after much wetting in the water, swallow a Common Grackle!!! Egrets and herons were is short supply but we found both Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawks along with a single Harrier and watched a Peregrine Falcon feasting on its catch in a field. We also had 5 Sora Rails. The 19 species of shorebirds and the great numbers were highlighted by a single American Golden-Plover, Western, Semipalmated, Baird's and White-rumped Sandpipers plus Dunlin,Stilt, Long-billed Dowitchers, Wilson's Snipe and 2 gorgeous female Wilson's Phalarope in full breeding plumage. The warbler total for the day and they were really scattered was 19, including Blue-winged, Golden-winged, Blackburnian, Bay-breasted, Chestnut-sided, both Waterthrush, and Chat. Only 9 species of sparrows could be coaxed out of the weeds and into the rain and wind, Grasshopper and Lincoln's made the list A pair of male Painted Buntings were trading songs at Ensley while Dickcissels and Bobolink, scisseled and dinked. Another surprise was a trio of Pine Siskins feeding with a large flock of Goldfinches along the side of a road. I pretty full day and we now are off to AR for 2 days with Kenny and LaDonna Nichols to punch out a few more birds on Paul Lehman's want list. 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================