FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] TOS Members Converge for Great Mountain Birding at Bristol

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Welcome to Bristol:
Tennessee Ornithological Society

from you hosts and friends of
the Bristol Bird Club

    Birders from Memphis to Southwest Virginia and places in between began 
arriving Thursday night and their journey
to the mountains of the beautiful and vast Southern Appalachians for a 
delightful and bird-filled weekend.

    Early birders came to search the Ridge and Valley and the Cherokee National 
Forest Friday to get their first Tennessee record of a Ruffed Grouse.  They 
were successful !

    An excellent turnout continued to roll in until 10 p.m. as West Tennessee 
birders completed the long trek.

    As dawn breaks across the towering peaks of the great Blue Ridge range, 
early Saturday, field trips will spread out over an area
nearly a 100 miles across to bird some of the nation's greatest cove hardwoods 
and famous heath balds in high elevation meadows.

    To the west a group will climb high into the Allegheny Mountains to the 
beautiful Laurel Bed Lake near the crest of the Clinch Mountain.  During the 
course of the weekend field trip leaders will take parties to Whitetop Mountain 
in the heart of the Mount Rorgers National Recreation Area of the Jefferson 
National Forest.  Then in the upper reaches of the New River watershed birders 
will go high into Grayson Highlands State Park along the famed and birdy 
Virginia Highlands Horse Trail.  Not far away parties will wind south through 
the dramatic cove hardwoods of the Cherokee National Forest along Beaverdam 
Creek to Shady Valley -- Tennessee highest mountain valley and home to some of 
the most imperiled habitat of endangered species in the state.

    Others will bird the easy lowland trails and rolling ridges of the Ridge 
and Valley region at Bristol Tennessee's 2100-acre Steele Creek Park.  Still 
others will seek great birding from Roan Mountain State Park to Carver's Gap 
and beyond, reaching altitudes near 6,000 feet in conifer forests along the 
North Carolina stateline.

    Rick Knight will lead trips Saturday and Sunday to Shady Valley to explore 
rare high-elevation mountain bogs owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy.

    From the ancient New River and the headwaters of the Tennessee River 
birders will listen and watch for rare breeding flycatchers, warblers, 
thrushes, woodpeckers and special finches of these great mountains.

    Saturday evening in Bristol, TOS members will gather for a sumptuous dinner 
and hear Dr. Richard Peake, author of Birds of the Virginia Cumberlands speak 
on the subject "Birds of the Cloud Islands," with an illustrated talk about 
Appalachian Mountain birds and mountain birds from other parts of the world.."

    What a wonderful weekend!  We are delighted that such a great turnout has 
come for the Annual State Meeting of the Tennessee Ornithological Society.  
And, for those of you who are with us in sprit and envy, we miss you and hope 
you will come be with us next time.

    It is joy beyond belief to meet the good souls and faces that go with all 
the names seen here on TN-Birds.

    Your friends from the Bristol Bird Club once again present you with high 
quality and well organized birding in rare habitat of these mountains, just for 
talented and exciting birders like you !  You deserve the best and that is why 
we have the best here for you.

    Bristol Bird Club
    Bristol, TN-VA