March 31, 2006 Mud Island, Eagle Lake Shelby Forest, Ensley Bottoms and Robco Lake all in Shelby Co, TN Mike Todd and I had not birdied together in over a month and decided to do Shelby Co, just to see what was around. We loaded up with carbs at I-Hop and started at 6:30 in the rain and finished at 6:30 P M, watching at pair of breeding plumaged Yellow-crowned Night-Herons displaying their feathery finery to one another at a nest. The top experience for us on the day (among many) was watching the first 3 sticks being placed by a pair of adult Bald Eagles in the crown of a cypress tree. The site is perfect with 4 large limbs to give support to the future home. I'll post photos as construction progresses. In second place was an encounter with a very large Cottonmouth, a female just emerging from the winter siesta. You could see how loose the scales and skin were, even at that she was well over 3 feet and quite hefty but tolerated our photo session with open mouth but never struck the first time, not even when being politely escorted to the side of the road. I find them far less likely to strike than Copperheads or Rattlesnakes but have a great respect for them. They just get their reputation from being defiant and refusing to give ground. We have some fine photos of Big Mamma. I've seen Cottonmouths out and about for two weeks so be careful where you step. Through the morning wind and rain and the windy afternoon we found the following: On the Mississippi River, we saw a group of 300+ American White Pelicans flashing as they circled and sped north on the wind. Only 12 species of waterfowl, with nothing really unexpected but quite a few species seen earlier in the week have left. Raptor wise, we only had 6 species with the down-town Peregrine a no show, which probably was doing just like the others staying out of the wind and weather as much as possible. We saw Wild Turkeys at every turn with the males really strutting their stuff. Shorebird wise the winners for most elegant appearance were 2 sleek, streamlined, breeding plumage Baird's Sandpipers at Ensley. A Western Sandpiper was a first of season for me in TN and it brought the total to only 9 species, as we could find no Golden-Plovers in the wind. Eurasian Collared- Doves were seen in every commercial, residential and industrial site we visited..........Two Bonaparte's Gulls at different locations on the river with the Ring-billed Gulls on Robco that were joined by 3 Forster's Terns filled our pelagic list. The wind kept the woodpecker species list down to five and only the White-eyed Vireos (some in stunning coloration) were seen in that family. We had both the crow species calling and cavorting in the wind. Carolina, House and Winter were the only wrens coaxed into view. Both the Kinglets were singing up a storm along with multiple Hermit Thrushes, up to 3 at one location, all trying to out do their brethren with their almost surreal artistry of song. Warblers have arrived but were few and far between as we ended with only six species and a handful of distant sky high feeders in the tops of the wind whipped trees. Sparrow species were hunkered in and we saw only the expected, numbering seven, heck, we even had a hard time finding Goldfinches. Over all, just as any day in the field is better than working, we had a great time finding 101 species on the day. Good Birding !!! Jeff R. Wilson / TLBA 6298 Memphis-Arlington Road Bartlett, TN 38135 =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the count 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 _____________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp _____________________________________________________________