Oct. 3, 2004 Mississippi River Shelby Co. TN I left Ensley at noon, after two Peregrines had started a competition as to which could keep the most birds in the air at the same time. Saturday morning my first visit to Mud Island at dawn produced little in the way of birds but my second visit kept me busy counting ducks. Sunday my first revealed nothing and my second kept me counting soaring White Pelicans. The sandbars are just starting to peek out above the waters. In slightly over an hours vigil, I had nine flights of Pelicans with the high number in the largest group a hefty 435+ and total for that location was 875+. I left there to check out Eagle Lake and found the gates locked, so I started scanning the horizon over the river and what I saw at first in the distance looked like skeins of Snow Geese but in the next hour I counted another 950+ White Pelicans heading south. As they got to the south edge of the refuge, each group again went into thermals and looked like flashing clouds that would appear and disappear as they turned. After a little break I headed south to Ensley again where I might have caught a few of those same flights but I did not add them to the total. Over 1800 Pelicans headed south, no telling what had passed that was missed. 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ========================================================