[TN-Bird] Weekend Finds TN-MS
- From: OLCOOT1@xxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:48:25 EDT
June 11-12, 2005
Shelby and Tipton Co. TN
DeSoto and Tunica Co. MS
At Ensley, the Black-necked Stilts continue to hatch young and protest
voyeurs and I saw only 4 White-rumped Sandpipers among the many Killdeer on the
flats. Painted Buntings still sing while the Chat has grown silent except for
brief chups and whistles given from deep inside the scrubby vines, unlike the
exposed perches used just last week to cast its full repertory of left over
parts of various songs bestowed to Chats only after all the good parts were
given other species.
The Western Kingbirds at Ensley are still awaiting young, the male was not
staying close to the female on the nest but venturing and hunting a good
distance away. I found a possible second nesting on President's Island but
could
not get near the area and caught only flashes of a foraging bird going around
a grain elevator superstructure on McKellar Lake.
I also had 2 Ring-billed Gulls on McKellar Lake and 2 male Lesser Scaup. One
group of lounging Mallards numbered 134 but not a dark bird in the bunch.
Hopefully the Mottled Ducks will return after their brief visit last month.
Kenny and LaDonna Nichols had adults with young last week in Arkansas, so why
not here?
The female Scissor-tailed Flycatcher on President's Island is still
incubating eggs and I found the LONG TAILED male about a half mile away feeding
in a
field to the north. I followed it to the nest and got a photo of it hovering
at the nest. The Short Tailed male seen last week near the nest evidently was
not one of the pair. I saw him again, just south of the nest in the area we
watched him fly to last week. I followed him around wondering if there was
another nest but lost him. It might be a year old bird returning to its
hatching area or we might get lucky with another pair. His short tail is very
worn
and appears as last week to have been broken off.
I watched a single male Scissor-tailed Flycatcher foraging over a cotton
field in Tipton Co. The bird was off Coon Valley Road north of Cedar Point. The
bird kept going back to the tree line to the west and eventually disappeared.
The gates are locked at Eagle Lake Refuge, so I could only scan from parking
lot. I had 1 Black-necked Stilt male, 1 adult Bald Eagle circling along with
21 Mississippi Kites. The kites were seen just about everywhere along the
river in Tipton Co. There is a lot of activity in the rookery north of Eagle
Lake Refuge with many Great Blue and Great Egrets making trips in and out. I
saw only scattered Great Egrets in Tipton Co.
The river is on another rise and is quickly recapturing sandbars where the
luckless Least Terns were at last trying to nest. The colony on the Hatchie Bar
are the only ones with high enough ground to survive this 7-8 rise. It is
back to the fields for the others. The road at Ballard Slough was washed out
this year and has been closed until recently. You still can't drive through
unless you cross a field but you can get to the Bank Swallow nest area. It
also
suffered damage, as when the road collapsed so did the steep sand bank. Most
of the birds have moved to a new area to the north which is harder to view
and I saw another colony just off Randolph's Bluff.
The male western Kingbird that was seen on territory and heard calling in
DeSoto CO. MS a few weeks ago, evidently did not attract a mate and has left.
I
searched an extensive area in Tunica Co, but came up empty handed. I did see
2 pair of Broad-winged Hawks over the trees along the levee. You don't see a
lot of these in the flat delta along the river. Black-necked Stilt couples
were found in almost every newly flooded rice field.
Good Birding!!!
Jeff R. Wilson
OL'COOT / TLBA
Bartlett, TN
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