FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Evening Grosbeaks in Buchanan Co, VA (1964)

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Discovered in my field log a notation for Friday, Dec. 18, 1964:

"Bob Quillen reported having seen 
6 or 8 Evening Grosbeaks flying across the road along Virginia Route 80
at Davenport.....this date."  

Do we have Evening Grosbeak records this far back in Buchanan
County, VA ?  The first Evening Grosbeak for the Bristol area that winter 
occurred 
the next day with a single bird at the feeder of Mrs. H.C. Epperson on Maryland 
Ave.
in Bristol Tennessee.

Evening Grosbeaks began to winter in Southwest Virginia  and Northeast 
Tennessee  
for the first time in the winter of 1945-1946, according to Fred Behrend.

Mary Fern Behrend found birds 22 Nov 1945 at Milligan College, TN. A flock was 
found at Abingdon, VA 26 Jan 1946 by Dr. Henry M. Stevenson, the prominent
Florida State University ornithologist who was, in the 1940's, on the faculty at
Emory & Henry College. 

They were found fairly regularly at Bristol until the mid-1080s.

They continued to invade Shady Valley, TN: 1989-1990, 
1990-1991, 1993-1994, 1995-1996, 1997-1998.  There were 200 at John Shumate's
feeder in Shady 26 Dec 1993 to 1 Mar 1994. During invasions years we've had 
flocks of up to 300.  

Larry McDaniel was"caught" in the middle of a very large flock
feeding in the road all around his car during a fog on his way up to Carver's 
Gap on 
Roan Mountain in the late 1990's.

I guess our latest date is one that lingered until 2 Jul 1990 in Carter Co. 
(fide Tom McNeil).

The peak count for the mountains of the western part of Virginia is 656 on 22 
Dec 1995
in Highland County.

Let's go birding.....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN