FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Cranes, eagles, hawks in Burke's Garden !

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Gorgeous skies, comfortable weather, neat birds and great fellowship
were the orders of the day as 23 birders turned out for the Bristol
Bird Club's 18th Annual Burke's Garden Golden Eagle Field Trip to 
Tazewell County, VA, today (Feb 16).

Of course everyone wanted to see the feature species and both the
Golden Eagles and Rough-legged Hawks put on a fine show.

Rick Knight and Dave Worley teamed to lead the foray through the
high mountain valley -- truly the garden spot of the Old Dominion.

Two of the best bird discoveries of the day were a Whooping Crane
and a Sandhill Crane !  Yes.  A resident of the valley started
"jawing" with us about birding.  When Wallace Coffey asked if he
had seen any unusual birds in Burke's Garden, he said yes.  He
reported a Whooping Crane and a Sandhill Crane had spent
several days in the "bottoms" along Rhudy Branch southeast of
the Post Office.  He said that he had made photos of the birds.

A short time later, he found us birding on Litzs Lane and brought
us a small stack of color prints of both birds.  The pix were clear and
excellent documentation.  He gave us his name and other contact
info and we provide him ours.  He is going to scan the photos and
e-mail them to us and search the dates.  The Sandhill Crane photo
was date stamped April 2006 on the back.  There was no date on
the Whooping Crane.  We were amazed.

He said that color markers on the Whooping Crane allowed them
to learn that the bird was one from the Florida population.  He said
he would soon get us more details on all the info they have.

Amazing !  To say the least.  You just never know what a farm
boy in a cowboy hat with big, red, pickum up truck has found.

Everyone enjoyed the wonderful antics of a Golden Eagle
which was found perched in the edge of the woods.  It flew
out and up a hillside, landing in a field where it appeared to be
running the ground trying to find a small rodent.  It flew back and
forth many trips and was on the ground several times as all the
birders got to check its field marks over and over.

Stan Bentley, author of the famous book Native Orchids of the
Southern Appalachian Mountains, published by The University
of North Carolina Press, came from Pulaski.  He and his
wife Mary Ann had seen an interesting encounter between a
Golden Eagle and Groundhog as they were coming thru the
valley.  

Bentley said the Golden Eagle dropped straight down out of the
sky at the Groundhog.  Just as it got within a few feet, it changed
its approach and landed next to the big ground squirrel.  They both
sized each other up until the eagle had figured it out.  Then the
eagle jumped on top of the Groundhog.  How about that ?

The Bentley's Coralroot Orchid (Corrallorhiza blentleyi), the most
rare orchard in all of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, is 
named for him.  This famous orchid, discovered by Bentley in
1996, is known from only one locality in the world and was named
for Stan by a botanist from Ohio State University.  Type specimens
are deposited at Harvard University's  Ames Herbarium and in the
Massey Herbarium at Virginia Tech.  

The car parade found a Rough-legged Hawk early on.  Radios were
alive as word spread that it was perched not far out from the road.  
It was attractive with the broad dark band across the belly and white 
head.  Just beautiful !  Everyone thought so.  

The spotting scopes got good workouts.  We not only had a pleasant
social time with a full house at breakfast in Hardee's at Tazewell
but the Burke's Garden General Store served us up all of the
sandwiches, subs and fries you could eat.  It was not only
plentiful but tasty.

Here is today's bird list followed by participants:

Canada Goose 9
American Black Duck 1
Mallard 22
Green-winged Teal 14
Wild Turkey 21 (Three parties saw flock as we left.  Tom Hunter got the count.)
Pied-billed Grebe 1
Horned Grebe 1
Great Blue Heron 2
Black Vulture 5
Turkey Vulture 15
Red-tailed Hawk 7
Rough-legged Hawk 2
Golden Eagle 3
American Kestrel 3
Killdeer 1
Wilson's Snipe 6
Rock Pigeon 4
Mourning Dove 150
Red-bellied Woodpecker 4
Pileated Woodpecker 2
Blue Jay 5
American Crow  201
Common Raven 6 (a couple chased a Golden Eagle)
Horned Lark 2 (one on fence post and then singing on the wing above us)
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatches 2
Carolina Wren 1
Eastern Bluebird 2
American Robin 8
European Starling 56
Song Sparrow 9
Dark-eyed Junco 3
Eastern Meadowlark 1
House Finch 4
American Goldfinch 4
House Sparrow 3

(Curious count:  4 Fox Squirrels.)

Participants:

Mary Ann Bentley (Pulaski)
Stan Bentley (Pulaski)
Bill Charles (Saltville)
Carolyn Coffey (Bristol)
Wallace  Coffey (Bristol)
Patty Harrington (Pennington Gap)
John Hay (Kingsport)
Peggy Herbert (Lebanon)
Bryan Hogan (Pennington Gap), 
Heather Hogan (Pennington Gap)
Mike Hubley (Rogersville)
Susan Hubley (Rogersville)
Tom Hunter (Lebanon)
Rick Knight, (Johnson City)
Roy Knispel (Johnson City)
Fred Martin (Bristol)
Janice Martin (Bristol)
John Moyle (Fall Branch)
Cindy Nowlin (Johnson City)
Dianna Singleton (Lebanon)
Michelle Sparks (Bristol)
Dave Worley (Rosedale)
Dianna Worley (Rosedale)

Thanks to everyone for turning out and for those of you who traveled 250 miles 
for the day.
Fine fellowship.  We caught Fred and Janice Martin snacking on apple pies and 
coffee in
Tazewell before they could get up the energy to drive home.

Let's go birding.......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN