FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] First Orchard Oriole in Shady Valley -- nearly 30 years.

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

John Shumate has reported the first Orchard Oriole in Shady Valley, since the 
Tennessee Ornithological Society Foray, held there 29-30-31 May 1976 when two 
were reported. 
"Thought you might be interested in hearing about what most certainly is a 1st 
Summer Orchard Oriole. As Lorrie and I were leaving her mother's home (Orchard 
Road) June 13 at about 8:00 PM I heard what sounded like a Purple Finch but 
soon realized that it sounded more like an Oriole. I got my binoculars from the 
car and
spotted the bird sitting in the top of a maple tree singing. It had a black 
head with a tinge of yellow, black wings with 2 wing bars, black tail and black 
bib with a ring of dark chestnut under it. The breast was yellow with tinges of 
dark chestnut," John wrote.
 
John and Lorrie went back June 14 at about 7:30 PM with their spotting scope 
and got some great looks at this bird as it moved from tree to tree in the lawn 
feeding and singing. It even would turn its head down to reach food. John 
played a tape of the Orchard Oriole and the bird would fly out and sit in the 
open so they got great looks.

John and I reported this as a rare summer resident in our 1999 book on the 
birds of the valley.    Ken Dubke found three on a foray in Shady Valley 6-7 
Jun 1964 with two birds carrying food into a yellow poplar at 2580 ft. 
elevation.

John's discovery of the first Orchard Oriole in Shady in nearly 30 years is an 
excellent record, considering the frequency of birding that goes on there !

It is also a species which is usually below 2,500 feet elevation throughout the 
Blue Ridge Mountains.  At Shady Valley, in the western most part of the Blue 
Ridge in our area, John found this bird at  2,800 feet, not far from where 
Locust Knob Branch flows under Orchard Road,  just down the road from Orchard 
Bog.

Let's go birding.....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN 
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