FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Bristol Bird Club Watauga Lake Outing

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Bristol Bird Club Watauga Lake Outing
    Saturday, August 13, 2:30 p.m.
                        
                        Hostd by:
Bob & Ellen Parker and Charlie
at their lovely mountain lake home
136 Summer Hill Private Dr,
Butler, TN (near Cove Ridge Boat Dock)



View from Parker's lakefront dock

    This will be a wonderful, warm and scenic afternoon     of birding, 
loafing, boating, visiting and enjoying one     the region's most beautiful 
mountain lakes.  Many of     our birders have never birded here by boat.

136 Summer Hill Private Dr,

  In late winter, the Parkers invited the Bristol Bird Club and its friends to 
this special place on their lakeshore at the foot of Iron Mountain.  They have 
been anxious to share this special bit of heaven with BBC and other birders.

  The activities start at 2:30 PM and will be followed by a cook-out / potluck 
feast. The Parkers are providing hot dogs and hamburgers. Bring a covered dish 
of your choice --- salad, veggies, or dessert.  If you want, you can bring some 
ice. We will need 5 bags.  We are going to "lazy away" on a Saturday afternoon 
at the lake.


  Of course some of you will not want to become seaworthy and go for a 
peaceful, uncrowded ride up Watauga Lake with your friends and fellow birders.  
You might just want to slump back and chat away the evening with a few good 
birding friends.  But others will want to come aboard one of the Parker's two 
boats and look at the scenery while looking for terns, egrets, herons, 
shorebirds or other early waterbirds.  Who knows ?
                                                                                
      Parker's Sun Tracker awaits BBC

  Well, here is who knows:  those Bristol Bird Club members on board an 
identical BBC floatboat trip at South Holston Lake, October 2, 2004, when we 
discovered the wintering area of the Eared Grebe near Musick's Campground.  
History was made to stay!  What will we find this weekend ?  Who knows ? 

  If the timing and weather blesses us, we will venture up the lake into Roan 
Creek where some of Northeast Tennessee's most exciting species have been 
discovered down through the years.  Greater White-fronted Goose, Red-necked 
Grebe, Little Blue Heron, Northern Goshawk, Ruddy Turnstone, Western Sandpiper, 
Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Royal Tern are just a few of the species that have 
been observed at Roan Creek.  At nearby Cove Ridge Boat Dock, Red Crossbills 
have been seen in winter.  But who knows ?  One was found in August at 
Bristol's Steele Creek Park.  Don't be somewhere else when someone else finds a 
really good bird and you just couldn't get up the energy to join us.

  Presently, the Watauga Lake reservoir elevation is at 1957.3, down slightly 
from projected recreation season high of 1959 feet elevation.  We will not have 
really nice exposed mudflats but Roan Creek will offer good habitat anytime in 
August, under the new TVA baseline recreation management goals.  The lake level 
is on a steady drawdown and TVA is generating Monday thru Friday so it can only 
get better. 


        DIRECTIONS

        From Elizabethton travel U.S. 19E (U.S.     321 to Hampton, TN.  Turn 
left on U.S.         321 and TN Rt. 67 at Hampton,                     
continuing along Watauga Lake until U.S.     321 bears sharp right and TN Rt. 
67             continues straight towards Butler and         Mountain City. At 
Butler turn left on to         Piercetown Road just past Butler                 
Community Park and and before the             Amoco Station.  Continue past 
Butler     Volunteer Fire Dept, bear right at         fork in road. Drive past 
Cove Ridge 

    Marina on left and take next left on Summer Hill Private Dr.  The Parker's 
house is 4th house on right with gray siding.  House number is 136.
           

    Lake House phone 423-768-2442
    If you plan to attend, e-mail Bill Grigsby at 
    bill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx