FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Historical Snippet -June 15-20,1936

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

 BBC Snippet  
A group of Tennessee birders, participating in a Tennessee Ornithological
Society summer jamboree, June 15-20,1936, at Roan Mountain is likely the 
first state TOS activity held in Northeast Tennessee.

Bruce P. Tyler of Johnson City had been elected President of  TOS
and was helping host birders from across the state, along with his birding
companion, Bob B. Lyle, also of Johnson City.
























       The party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. John Bamberg, F. S. Carpenter, 
Alfred Clebach, Jr.,
       Dr. Cynthis C. Counce, George Davis, Amy Deane, Albert F. Ganier, Robert 
B. Lyle, Evelyn
       Schneider, Mable Slack and Bruce P. Tyler. This photo, posed with an old 
beech, 
       is only part of the group and the only person identified is Albert F. 
Gainer (wearing a tie).

Roan Mountain contains some of the most unique flora and fauna in the eastern 
United States. Much national attention has been directed to identifying and 
classifying these unique features as well as being recognized for its 
outstanding 
scenic qualities of high mountain balds, rhododendron gardens, and spruce-fir 
timber types. It contains more than 300 species of plants, some rare and 
endangered, 
and wildlife, some at their northern and southern limits. A yellow birch tree 
(Betula 
alleghaniensis) found in the hardwood forest was determined to be 385 years old.

Despite the fact there had been notable naturalist on Roan Mountain in the 1800s
and early 1900s, TOS took note of the lack of specific information about 
distribution
by elevation and sometimes almost nothing about whether birds were seen in the
vicinity of Roan Mountain or on the mountain itself.

The group stayed in a lodge located at 
what was then called Toll House Gap 
near the site of the former Cloudland Hotel 
(6150 ft.); the lodge was at 6100 ft.  The
gap is located along the road from Carver's
Gap up to the gardens and is where the
first large parking lot is on the right as you
get most of the way to the top.

The mountain, from about 5000 ft. upward, 
is of the Canadian type in its fauna and 
flora. This was particularly evidenced by 
            Sketch of lodge by Lyle & Tyler               the presence, from 
Roan High Bluff to Roan
High Knob, of an almost unbroken line, at or near the summits, of balsam fir 
and red 
spruce.   The once splendid forests of fir and spruce had been cut out, nearly 
to the 
tops, thus damaging the scenic aspects and perhaps altering the bird life.

Albert F. Ganier of Nashville was the leader  of the TOS group.  
He became known as the "Dean of Tennessee Ornithology" in 
the years to come.  His first published paper was in 1899.  He 
was one of five founders of the state society.  In 1926 he was
president of the Tennessee Academy of Science and was a past 
president of the famous Wilson Ornithological Society.  He led 
the party to the very high elevation of Roan (6313 ft.) which is 
unsurpassed in the eastern United States, except for a few peaks
in the Mount Mitchell group and in the Great Smokies.


The party of twelve bird students from TOS had as their purpose to make as 
complete
a list as possible of the breeding birds to be found about the summits. They 
confined 
their observations to the area lying above the 5000 foot contour, which 
generally
embraced the Canadian type habitat. They found a total of 32 species but 
doubtless 
a few others were not seen. 

In the mid-1930s, Tyler was playing a very 
active role in TOS.  He was the East 
Tennessee regional editor for THE MIGRANT,
 the state journal of ornithology. He was  
participating in TOS activities.  Tyler had 
become a very good friend with Ganier and 
the two were beginning to focus on various 
aspects of the birdlife of Northeast Tennessee.  
He was also leading an annual Christmas Bird 
Count at Johnson City.

In the photo at the left, Tyler is shown doing 
daily chores at the ranger cabin which had 
been built along with a fire tower in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps 
program.  
The window at the top is a loft which had a ladder leading to another area 
which could be
used for sleeping quarters.  Below is a photo of the same cabin today. It is at 
the summit 
of Roan High Knob.  The cabin was renovated 
in 1980 and now serves as the Roan High 
Knob Shelter of the Appalachian Trail.  At 6285 ft. 
elevation it is the highest shelter on the AT. It
sleeps 16 and it the largest shelter on the famous
trail.

Look at the difference in forest growth about
the cabin site since the photo above was made
in June 1936.  This alone gives us a different
perspective about what the habitat was like
in some areas of Roan Mountain then and today.  It had been heavily cut over.

One of the prize discoveries in June 1936 was the nest of a RED-BREASTED 
NUTHATCH.
It was found by John Bamberg on June 23, at 5900 ft., containing 5 nearly fresh 
eggs. 
It was built 9 feet above the ground and a foot below the top of a dead spruce 
stub 12 in.
in diameter, on a cut-over slope. The tree was punky 
and the wood soft, so the nuthatch had excavated its own 
characteristic hole to a depth of 9 inches. As usual 
with this species, a small amount of gum had been 
brought and applied to the exterior about the entrance. 
A scanty pad of soft inner fibers of bark was beneath 
the eggs. The bird flushed readily when the tree was 
pounded on but later became harder to evict as a 
series of photos were being taken. A new nest cavity, 
partly finished, was found in the dead top of a small 
buckeye at Big Meadow and in a nearby spruce, old 
birds were watched at 10 feet, feeding young as large 
as themselves. By this it would seem that there was an 
early season nesting as with the White-breasted Nuthatch,
Ganier concluded in his report.

Other species of interest included:

Duck. HAWK (PEREGRINE FALCON).-One flew low 
over the "Rhododendron Gardens" on June 22, with 
prey in its talons. A "Peregrine" was also observed 
around Roan High Point, by Tyler, on June 24. The cliffs at the High Bluff, 
which Ganier wrote
" that he lacked time to examine closely," seemed well adapted to an eyrie, he 
thought.

PRAIRIE HORNED LARK -A pair and a young bird on the wing, were observed by "all 
of 
us on the summit of Little Roan (5800 ft.) just s.w. of Carver's Gap." It was 
an extensive 
nearly bald summit; the grass on top was short and therefore suitable for this 
short-legged, 
ground walking bird. The presence of this species there, when it was doubtless 
nesting, 
was of particular interest. Tyler and Lyle had previously reported it there, on 
June 30, 1935.

NORTHERN RAVEN - Ganier considered this as perhaps the highlight of the trip 
when
the sight of a flock of 7 or 8 of these birds were seen June 25, flying 
leisurely westward 
along the north side of Little Roan [evidently Round Bald as we know it 
today].They saw or 
heard one or more Ravens each day of their visit and at all points on the 
mountain. 


VEERY.-Fairly common 
in the fir belt and down the 
slopes into the deciduous forest. 
In the edge of the latter, at 
Big Meadow (5500 ft.) a nest 
was found on June 24, with 3 
early fresh eggs. It was built 
2 feet above the ground in one 
of a patch of small beech sprouts 
in thick woods. The bulky nest 
was built on a foundation of 
beech leaves and was principally 
of weed stems and fibers. An old 
nest was found nearby on a low 
           The TOS birding party at The Big Meadow (5200-5700 ft.)              
  limb of a small spruce.

ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK -A male observed singing on the south side of Little 
Roan,
near top at elev. 5700 ft., in deciduous growth.

EASTERN VESPER SPARROW -- Ganier was pleased, and a little surprised, to find 
one 
of these birds feeding on the grassy bald summit of Little Roan at elev. 5700 
ft. It probably 
had a nest in the vicinity for conditions there were quite suitable, he wrote.

from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club
and the pages of THE MIGRANT
Photos from the Bob Lyle Collection
left to Wallace Coffey.