FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Re: Young Mockers in Buchanan County

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Roger Mayhorn and Area Birders:

The information Roger has produced regarding the expansion of the mockingbird 
in Eastern Kentucky and nearby West Virginia is neat.  Often times, species 
begin establishing themselves in a region before we know it.  Sometimes they go 
years undiscovered.  In this case, there were knowledgeable observers in 
Eastern Kentucky who began to tune into the arrival of the mockingbird, even if 
they did not make good records of the event.  Breeding bird atlases in both 
both states, during the last decade, did not detect this significant level of  
mockingbird distribution.  The understanding of this change in bird populations 
has been advanced.  Would it be reasonable to make a few driving surveys in a 
structured way (similar to a breeding bird survey) in several of the Kentucky 
border counties. Maybe this would establish some measure of the expansion ?  A 
snapshot, if you will, of the population in several counties at this date.   
Perhaps a neat paper of a page or so could be published in the "Kentucky 
Warbler," journal of the Kentucky Ornithological Society.  Roger would be well 
qualified to pull this off, if he can find the time.  Like all the rest of us,  
I am sure he has more on his plate than he can say grace over.  Eventually, 
this is should be published in so manner for Kentucky's record of bird 
distribution.  Way to go Roger!  Another significant contribution.

Let's go birding.....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN

Original Message ----- 
  From: Mayhorn 
  To: Bristol Birds 
  Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2005 5:02 PM
  Subject: [Bristol-Birds] Re: Young Mockers in Buchanan County


  Wallace Coffey and Area Birders,



  Wallace, thank you for your ideas concerning Northern Mockingbirds expanding 
their nesting range to Buchanan County. One part of your reply especially 
intrigued me - that concerning the lack of Northern Mockingbirds in Eastern 
Kentucky. I know as a boy growning up in Pike County I never saw a mockingbird 
there. However, I remembered seeing one a  couple of months ago in Elkhorn City 
KY, while visiting relatives there. Since reading your message I have been in 
contact with some birders in that area, and it seems that without us having 
realized it the mockers have moved into that part of Pike County. My wife's 
uncle, who lives there, said that this spring he had a nest of mockers in his 
yard, and that he was attacked by one of them when he ventured too close to the 
shrub where the nest was located. He said he was used to seeing mockingbirds in 
the area.



  Another fellow, who lives in Elkhorn City, KY said the species had nested 
first in his neighbor's yard, then in his yard  for at least 10-12 years. One 
of the reasons he remembers is that his wife gets upset because the mockers 
bully the wrens that nest there also.



  Another bird savvy friend originally from Letcher County KY, said that he, 
when growning up there, never saw mockingbirds, but now, when he visits his 
father in Whitesburg, KY, does see them there during the breeding season. If 
the Buchanan County birds are the result of an expansion of the range from the 
Eastern KY birds, this would be compatible with species expansion along the 
river drainages, in this case (as you mentioned) the Levisa and Tug Fork, both 
tributaries of the Big Sandy River system. 



  Regarding mockingbirds nesting in WV, another birding friend, who lives and 
works in Mingo County along the Tug Fork, tells me that he has been seeing 
mockingbirds there during the breeding season for several years, though he 
didn't have an exact date. I also talked with a couple of veteran birders from 
WV.  I was told that mockers are nesting in Raleigh and Greenbrier Counties and 
have been for some time. I also checked with Jim Phillips, the naturalist and 
avid birder at Pipestem State Park in Summers County WV. According to his 
records mockingbirds have been nesting in that county for the past 30 years. So 
it seems that Buchanan County has been an island in the midst of these 
expanding nesting areas, so I suppose it was just a matter of time before they 
moved in.



  Enjoy the birds,



  Roger Mayhorn

  Compton Mt

  Buchanan County VA 





  Roger Mayhorn and Area Birders,



  I will take a chance speculating why the mockingbird  has expanded its range 
to include heavily forested Buchanan County.



  First, congratulations on filling in another gap in our aviabase of bird 
distribution in the region.  It is a significant contribution.  You guys have 
been well focused on a good local distribution problem.  You kept your minds on 
the question and your mind was prepared when the chances presented themselve (a 
Pasture belief).



  Mockers have been extending their range slowly north for much of the last 
century.  The surrounding mountain counties in Kentucky and West Virginia are 
about as void of mockingbirds as is Buchanan County.  The rest of Southwest 
Virginia is getting extension of range from lower drainage influnces to the 
south and east such as the Tennessee River and New River where the mockingbird 
population is more dense. 



  I think the bigger picture is that Buchanan Co. is not as much influenced by 
most of the same factors as some of its neighboring counties in Southwest 
Virginia.  That explains, in my view, why Russell and even Tazewell counties 
have more mockingbirds. 



  It appears that some of your bird distribution issues may be closer connected 
to the influnce of the Big Sandy River drainage of Kentucky.  Russell, Wise, 
etc. are in the Upper Tennessee River Basin and the Virginia Cumberlands.  



  Mockingbirds are more abundant and wider distributed in Tennessee than in 
Kentucky.



  Often, when a species extends it range north it moves up the rivers and 
drainages.  When a northern species extends south it comes down the mountain 
ridges.  



  The mocker is at its greatest abundance in the lowlands, particularly in 
tidewater and piedmont.  Its upper altitudinal distribution range is about 
3,000 feet elevation.  So you can share our pleasure when 18 May 2005, Mike 
Hagy, Randy Smith, Ron Harrington and myself had a Northern Mockingbird in 
Burke's Garden.



  I would simply venture that your lack of mockingbirds is because you are so 
much more like your surrounding areas of West Virgnia and particularly 
Kentucky. 



  Maybe your breeding mockers have "hopped" over into your mountain top area of 
the Big Sandy and it's Levisa and Tug forks, etc.  The mocker is extremely 
sparse all around you in the Kentuck counties of Pike, Letcher, Knott, Floyd 
and Martin. I doubt if there is a breeding record in any of the Eastern 
Kentucky counties near you other than Floyd.  It is almost as scare in 
McDowell, Wyoming and Mercer counties of West Virginia.



  Brainard Palmer-Ball, Jr. states that the mocker will nest wherever it finds 
land distrubted by man and, today, is restricted to such areas.  He says it has 
likely increased dramatically in response to human alteration of the landscape. 
 He says it is rarely reported  from forested areas but has occupied abandoned 
farmland, rural roadways and reclaimed surface mines.  



  "In heavily forested areas, mockingbirds seem to be restricted to opnings 
surrounding rural homsteads," Palmer-Ball, Jr. wrote (1996).



  Perhaps that explains why your breeding mockers are in your opening on your 
ridgetop in the tree in your yard :-)



  Whatever,  enjoy and great work !



  Let's go birding.....



  Wallace Coffey

  Bristol, TN