FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Active heron nests and a mess of froglegs (Hawkins Co.)

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

The Phipps Bend Great Blue Heron rookery which we discovered two weeks ago on 
the Holston River in Hawkins County, TN is now active !  Feb. 3 may be the 
earliest date in this region for birds on the nests.

Rick Phillips, Charlie Parker, Chris O'Bryan and I spent the day gathering bird 
records for Hawkins County along the "Bends of the Holston" to Rogersville and 
then thru Carter Valley and Stanley Valley north of U.S. 11W.  We birded about 
100 miles.

On the backside of Phipps Bend, across the river from the original construction 
efforts for the nuclear power plant site, Chris O'Bryan and Wallace Coffey 
found two tall sycamore trees which were hosting a heronry of about 15 nests on 
Jan. 20, 2006.    No birds were present. 

Today (Feb. 3), just before noon, we observed five (5) Great Blue Herons 
standing on five nests at the site which is at Miller Island at about 1100 feet 
elevation. It is located at 36°27'21" N, 82°48'41" W (WGS84/NAD83) USGS Stony 
Point Quad.

Chris hiked along the river to make an accurate nest count which turned out to 
be 18 nests on this date.  That was three more than we were able to count two 
weeks ago.  Parker counted and recounted the birds on the nests.  One bird was 
carefully adjusting sticks in its nest.

We also found American Kestrel 3, Red-tailed Hawk 4 and Ring-billed Gull 1 on 
the river at Phipps Bend.

We were so excited with this timely discovery for Don Miller's future book of 
the region that we immediately went to the burger restaurant on US 11W and had 
a big mess of froglegs !  That's right.  We devoured a mess of froglegs.  
Everyone rolled up the sleeves and we all waded in.

Twenty miles southwest along the river at Rogersville, we continued our search 
for active nest at two locations formerly found and reported by birder Susan 
Hubley who lives on John Sevier Lake.  A couple of miles downstream from John 
Sevier Sevier Steam Plant and just below McDonald Hill, we again found active 
nests.  Here Parker and O'Bryan again hiked along the river and counted seven 
(7) nest with another apparently about half under construction.  Three Great 
Blue Herons were standing on three of those nests.  Nearby were Palm Warbler 2, 
 Cooper's Hawk 1 and a Red-tailed Hawk. 

Late last March 2005 Bill Grigsby and I visited nests reported online by Susan 
Hubley across the channel from her home on John Sevier Lake in the vicinity of 
Tunnell Hill Road.  Eight nest had five birds present last year.  Today we 
found those nests apparently in poor repair and no birds at the nests.  One 
Great Blue was feeding at the edge of the massive cattails. This heronry may 
have been abandoned.  Perhaps  Susan can updated us on the status later this 
spring.

As we closed out our day,  we enjoyed a beautiful Red-shouldered Hawk on 
Carter's Valley Rd. just south of Church Hill in Hawkins Co.  Rick Phillips got 
a great photo of the bird looking down on it from a hillside and showing the 
tail markings.  It was perched on a utility line in an upland environment.  
This may be the tip of the migration movement for this species which frequents 
very upland habitat duriing it northward migration throughout February.  A Wild 
Turkey was in the woods nearby.

Smith Place Road, near Silver Lake Golfcourse, Holston River, Hawkins Co. we 
had many American Robins in the fields and lawns.  We probably had 30 birds.  
At least a dozen Eastern Meadowlarks were perched on wires and singing during 
our visits in the morning and again in the afternoon. Numerous Purple Martin 
nest gourds were seen at a residence on Silver Lake Road.  By mid-afternoon we 
took the air temperature and found it about about 65 degrees.  A Red-tailed 
Hawk perched in a tree near habitat that looked extremely promising for 
harriers and Short-eared Owls.  None were found.

At Christians Bend Road, Holston River, we had 3 Pied-billed Grebes.

A tree on Vine Ave., Surgoinsville, had 20 Rusty Blackbirds.  On Stanley Valley 
Road, Phillips spotted 35 more Rusty Blackbirds.

Don Miller is making steady progress on his proposed six-county book which will 
include Hamblen County and five adjacent counties of Greene, Hawkins, Granger, 
Jefferson and Cocke.  His home county is Greene.  Miller's area is adjacent to 
Rick Knight's five-county area of Carter and surrounding counties of Johnson, 
Sullivan, Washington and Unicoi -- known as Northeast Tennessee.  Miller's 
work, along with Knight's upcoming revision of his book, will complete 
annotated check-list for a block of 11 counties in the upper most corner of 
East Tennessee.

Let's go birding......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN