Sept. 20-21, 2003 Mud Island, Mud Lake Ensley and Ark. Rice Fields Shelby Co. TN Crittenden Co. Ark Saturday was a lovely day, with 4 visitors at the pits most of the day. Dr. Pullen and his wife from Vicksburg were looking over areas for Audubon's Mississippi River Birding Trail and Alice and Bud Johnson down from Dresden, TN. I started the morning at Mud Island, looking over to the new born sandbar but found only 6 Caspian Terns and a single Black Tern with a multitude of Great and Snowy Egrets. At the pits I had a single Wood Stork standing in the back pool for the first of its kind seen on the ground there. A surprise was 2 Lark Sparrows feeding on the edge of the road with a Palm Warbler feeding above them in the Lamb's Quarter and a few Savannah Sparrows scattered about. The balance of shorebirds has swung heavily to Least Sandpipers but I was treated to 16 total shorebird species. Solitary, Spotted, Greater Yellowlegs, Bairds, Buff-breasted had only one representative present but a brace of adult Avocets fell in just before noon and immediately went to sleep, conveying their intent to continue their travels which they did less than 30 minutes later. I managed to get a shot of the dozing couple before their departure. Five of us had a surprise encounter when Alive discovered a large Bobcat taking a time out and standing in a pool of water. It watched us as we watched it through the scope. We all were transfixed by an adult Peregrine that harassed the shorebirds time and again and then would spiral up into the sun and wait for another speedy attempt. At the pits, you just never know what will show up. A quick trip across the bridge revealed a lot of cut rice but still plenty in the fields in a couple of locations and it appears too green to harvest as I checked some fruiting heads. The only harvesting going on was raising a lot of dust but no rails. I did find 3 Bobolinks at one stop while watching for rails.They have already started burning fields and the skies are dingy all day;o( Melinda Welton and Jan Shaw joined me late in the afternoon on Saturday for a fast trip through the area. Sunday morning we started at the river front and had 5 species of terns, 2 Caspian, 1 Least, 12 Forster's, 1 Common and 3 Black. The only other traffic being a single Pied-billed Grebe and Blue-winged Teal that floated by us. At the pits we ran through the few remaining Semipalmated and Western Sandpipers in the hordes of Least. All the Westerns were in full basic plumage and all Semis were immatures. We did have a short study of a particularly interesting peep that raised a few questions; they always get the juices running. Jan found a closeby Marsh Wren in the grass and a molting male Blue Grosbeak was a late bird. Virginia Reynolds and Carolyn Bullock located a single Lark Sparrow which we finally relocated for a state bird for Melinda. We were to see more Common and Forster's Terns at Robco and Mud Lake. At Mud Lake we had a single White Pelican as a flyby but no Wood Storks. After they left I returned to the Mississippi and sat in the rain, which did not deter the constant trickle of Forster's, Common and Black Terns, going south while 6 Caspian Terns and a single Ring-billed Gull hunkered on the bar. 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. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================