Leaving Memphis we headed north from Yazoo, and spent the night at a pretty basic hotel in Greenville, Mississippi. From there we looped back south a few miles to cross the Mississippi into Arkansas to head north. Our we planned two primary birding stops along the way in Arkansas. The first was at Lake Chicot State Park. Maybe more memorable than the park was driving for maybe 15 miles right along the west side of the with egrets, both Great and Snowy. In addition American White Pelicans were seen at most times, and it was a pretty
cool drive. eBird list was 35 species there in 1 ¾ hours.

We drove on to our second planned stop, Arkansas Post National Memorial, a nice historical site, with a good visitor’s center, history video, and a large grounds. It was afternoon birding, but with the high canopy trees it remained pretty active, with Yellow-throated and Prothonatary Warblers, our first of soon to be many Indigo Buntings, and really big alligators highlights.

From here we drove to Memphis, Tennessee. We had a nice room at the Staybridge Suites in East Memphis, quite a ways from Beale Street and downtown, but easy highway access and quiet. We liked Memphis overall, and found outdoor venues for music on both our second and third nights in the city. The first place was an outdoor venue with country music called The Grove at the Germantown PAC, where we had a picnic, beer, shade and good music. The next afternoon we went to a “Music on the Porch” event with lots of bands playing on neighborhood porches, and we walked around and listened, before heading downtown to Beale Street, to hear some music at a bar and have dinner at a Chess Club. We were impressed with the huge mansions in many neighborhoods, and the mature trees on many streets.

Birding around Memphis was excellent. On the first day we went to the T.O. Fuller State Park early and then on to Enslee Bottoms, keeping it to a half day of birding so we could check out the city music scene. The state park was fair, with nice forest, and moderately active birding. Prothonatary Warblers were all over the place, our first Eastern Phoebes of the trip showed, but I kept is to a little over an hour to leave lots of time for Enslee. I’m glad I did, as Enslee Bottoms is a special shorebird spot. I estimated 600 conservatively Lesser Yellowlegs, a few Greater Yellowlegs, and decent looks at Pectoral, Least, Solitary and Baird’s Sandpipers along with Black-necked Stilt and Killdeer. The tree line beside the open muddy spots had a few passerines, and I left quite a few sparrows unidentified.

The second day we birded the River Road access to Meeman Shelby State Park, a nice remaining hardwood bottomland spot recommended by prior guest Michael Todd. It was great. I listed 46 species, and know I left lots of unidentified warbler songs. Again, it is so odd having not been to the southeast much before, to see how extensive the wooded wetlands are overall. Standing water in vast forested areas is all over the place, but this area had more mature trees and was a bit drier. Still Prothonatary warblers were numerous, along with Northern Parula, Swainson’s, Tennessee, Hooded, Yellow-rumped, Yellow-throated, Kentucky, Blackpoll, and Palm Warblers and Common Yellowthroat. Indigo Buntings were everywhere, I saw my first Blue Grosbeak of the trip, and overall it was just top notch birding. ‘
We left Memphis across the Mississippi into Arkansas, and headed for the Wapanocca NWR. This was one of my favorite spots so far, in part maybe because we had lots of time to bird it, and in large part because of the birds. Dickcissel was abundant in the big weedy fields, as were Field Sparrows, both singing constantly. I have no idea how many Prothonatary Warblers we saw and heard. There seemed to be several birds singing almost the whole visit. The same wet woodlands seem to be prime Northern Parula habitat too, and they were singing everywhere too. We heard our first for-sure Yellow-billed Cuckoos here, and listed 53 species in a 4 ½ hour visit. We drove and wandered over much of the refuge roads.

Shortly after leaving Wapanocca Marian spotted a Greater Yellowlegs in a roadside flooded field, and on stopping it was packed with Pectoral Sandpipers. I listed 75, and think there were likely lots more than that. From here we drove north past most of Reelfoot NWR just into Kentucky to bird the Long Point Unit in the southwestern corner of Kentucky. Another state I’d not set foot in or birded, and Reelfoot is a massive NWR.
At the Long Point Unit maybe the coolest thing was a large mammal I’m pretty sure was a badger, and a massive flock of Black Vultures on the road likely by a carcass. There were lots of shorebirds, but views were distant and if it had not been our first hotspot of birding in Kentucky it would have been pretty dull.

We couldn’t find a place to stay in Kentucky in that area, so backtracked to Union City where the hotel we found as borderline, the meal at Applebys was disgusting, and the neighbors smoked and played music until 4 AM. I slept through it all, but Marian, not so well.
We headed back north right along the Mississippi River and birded our way along, stopping at 5 different places for eBird lists before making it to the first planned stop, Lake #9. Cool name I thought, but just a fun morning. Kentucky Warblers were singing in Kentucky, and I got nice looks at the Brownsville Cemetery. We finally both got great looks at Blue Grosbeak at Lake #9. Other stops with cool names were “Fish Pond- Roadside Viewing Only” and one of our favorite places was the Upper Bottom Road. We left Kentucky with a life list of 67 species, and generally a feel for this small corner of the state. Look at a map, and really only a tiny part of the state is along the Mississippi River. In some areas the terrain is really wild, with really deeply eroded ravines seemingly everywhere.

Last night we crossed the river again to stay in a nice place, the Holiday Inn Espress at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Today we started birding at the Cape Girardeau Nature Conservation Center, where it was cold! Our first chilly morning, about 48 degrees early, and the remarkable thing was an apparent migration of Swainson’s Thrushes. I saw about a dozen moving around the grounds, and we also had a pair of Northern Waterthrushes, Eastern Bluebirds at nest boxes, and enjoyed the walk.
From there we drove north, crossed the river back into Illinois and headed for a hotspot called Kidd Lake Marsh State Natural Area, which looked great on eBird, but seemed limited birding to me, just a couple of roads into a farmland beside a marsh. We managed 37 species, but not much special at all. We are getting more spoiled now though, with many of the eastern birds already seen well. A cool happening along the way though was a stop at what we called “Sharon’s Martin Hotel.” As we drove along Root’s Road in Randolph County I spotted what looked like a huge Purple Martin nest box array a ways off the road. We detoured off the road up a long driveway to the end, where a woman was painting her shed, and greeted us skeptically at first, but when we asked permission to check out her martin boxes, she beamed. She has over 100 pair of Purple Martins using a big set of boxes and plastic gords, and we had a nice chat and enjoyed the birds. Her home is partly underground to keep cool in summer and warm in winter, and she said she uses just one large propane tank a year, $500., to head the place for the whole year. The windows are just above ground level, so it looks like a half-house. Pretty cool. I eBirded 120 PUMA, but there were likely more. Definite filter smasher. We are at the Pear Tree Hotel in St. Louis now, and had a great dinner at a local brewery, best beet salad ever, and listened to the Mariners put up 7 runs in the 4th inning!
Tomorrow: I St. Louis Cardinals day game and some city park birding.