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Anybody on the list ever seen a Roseate Spoonbill in Mississippi?

I saw a large group this afternoon while scouting for teal in Yazoo County, and had to get the book out to determine what they were. Looked a little like pink flamingos and I hadn't even been drinking!

Despite the fact that Peterson's Field Guide to Eastern Birds inidicates that they only exist in Chile and Argentina and an extremely small patch on the Gulf near the Texas/Louisiana border, here they were. I guess New Orleanians aren't the only thing that got displaced from the hurricane.

Hey SB, what's the limit on these guys?

Quite a few around the Delta. I've seen several over the years. I see alot of wood storks too, 3 or 4 flocks of them up here numbering a few hundred birds.

Also saw a small group of sandhills last winter about a mile east of my house.

the roseate spoonbill is a pretty common bird in the Lower Mississippi Valley this time of year. Their presence this far north is called post breeding dispersal or summer dispersal by birders. If you ride the mainline levees this time of year, you can see lots of them in sloughs and borrow pits particularly where mud flats are exposed and they have easy access to feeding areas and shallow water.

Acornman

Wingman wrote:Quite a few around the Delta. I've seen several over the years. I see alot of wood storks too, 3 or 4 flocks of them up here numbering a few hundred birds.

Also saw a small group of sandhills last winter about a mile east of my house.

how dem storks eat Wingman do they taste like water turkey's?

roseate spoonbill...nope. But I did see an embarrassed shoveler one time.

I've seen alot of roseate spoonies. DON"T WANT TO SEE ANY STORKS!!!!

I have seen them up at the camp several times. Another place around Vicksburg you can often see them is on the road entrance going to baxter wilson power plant. There are some old ponds there and you can see them there quite often.

Wingman,
I've seen a flock of Sandhills in that part of the world too. Wonder if we were looking at the same birds or if there's some sort of mini-migration to Quitman County. Ones I saw were in the northern part of the county and was two seasons ago.

mottlet

I'm in Alaska fishing. We ate sandhill crane the other night. Tasted like a ptarmagin. Roseate spoonbills migrate through spending a good bit of time in the Louisiana marsh. Took a lot of photos of them this summer.

I don't know, mottlet. You interested in starting a sandhill preserve?

I've had other folks tell me they've seen them here, too. It was a first for me...huge birds.

tunica wrote:how dem storks eat Wingman do they taste like water turkey's?

Put bbq sauce on 'em..... they all taste like chicken

And here is one with some bling bling.

i saw some while i was duck hunting bout 3 years ago. thought i had a real bad hangover or something messing w/ my vision. Saw them in warren county, ms by the ms river

Dang that one gots jewerly, Where is my gun???

Seems to me like their range has greatly expanded over the past five or so years. When I was a kid in 70s and early 80s they were very common over in the SW part of the state, but almost never seen in the SE part of the state. Now we see them all over the place in the southern part of the state, and it could be that they are in central and northern part of the state also, butI don't go up there enough to be able to tell anyone. They are truly UGLY birds when you look at them up close, they have the head of an axe murderer. However they are good looking from far.