Yesterday, four members of the Buchanan and Russell County bird clubs
traveled to Bristol Va and surrounding areas in Tennessee. They were Tom
Hunter, Sherry Hite, John Kelly and myself. Our plan was to find Red-necked
Grebes that occupied area lakes as a result of a "fallout" that occurred
recently and brought unprecedented numbers of this species to our area. We did
find Red-neckeds in several areas but not in the numbers reported a couple of
days ago. Before meeting the rest of the party, I went to Sams Club in Bristol
for gas where I found 200+ Ring-billed Gulls (see photo above) gathered in the
parking lot, which I thought was a great start to the day.
Our first stop was Clear Creek Lake in Bristol VA where we found several
Red-necked Grebes, Canada Geese, American Coots and also a Cackling Goose.
After leaving there we went to Middlebrook Lake which didn't produce much other
than three Tree Swallows feeding over the lake and two Wilsons Snipe which flew
over our heads following two Wood Ducks. Then to Musick's Campground where we
found more Red-necked Grebes, Horned Grebes (one was starting to molt into
adult breeding plumage) and more Tree Swallows. After this, we traveled to the
Weir Dam where we saw a few Buffleheads and the resident Eastern Screech Owl
(other photo). After the Weir Dam we went to Paddle Creek ponds where we found
Redheads, Canvasbacks and Ring-necked Ducks. John and Sherry decided to call
it a day then, however, Tom and I forged on to Wilbur and Watuaga Lakes
respectively. On Wilbur we found more Buffleheads and Redheads and on Watauga
we found nine more Red-necked Grebes and a single adult Common Loon. After
leaving there we came back up Rte. 91 to Shady Valley and took Rte. 421 to the
boat ramp where the lake was extremely busy with boat traffic so we didn't find
much other than more Ring-billed Gulls and our only Common Raven of the day.
It was a beautiful day spent birding with good friends and we ended up
with a respectable 62 species on the day. They are listed below.
Cackling Goose - 1
Canada Goose - 24
Wood Duck - 4
Mallard - 20
Canvasback - 1
Redhead - 13
Ring-necked Duck - 6
Bufflehead - 51
Hooded Merganser - 2
Ruddy Duck - 2
Wild Turkey - 40
Common Loon - 1
Pied-billed Grebe - 3
Horned Grebe - 5
Red-necked Grebe - 22
Great Blue Heron - 3
Black Vulture - 3
Turkey Vulture - 26
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 4
Coopers Hawk - 1
Red-tailed Hawk - 2
American Coot - 16
Killdeer - 9
Wilson's Snipe - 2
Ring-billed Gull - 250 (very conservative estimate)
Herring Gull - 3
Feral Rock Pigeon - 6
Mourning Dove - 7
Eastern Screech Owl - 1
Belted Kingfisher - 3
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Northern Flicker - 2
Pileated Woodpecker - 1
American Kestrel - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 1
Blue Jay - 2
American Crow - 100+
Common Raven - 1
Tree Swallow - 4
Carolina Chickadee - 2
Tufted Titmouse - 2
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Carolina Wren - 2
Eastern Bluebird - 13
American Robin - 29
Norther Mockingbird - 3
European Starling - way too many!!
Cedar Waxwing - 11
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 4
Eastern Towhee - 3
Field Sparrow - 1
Song Sparrow - 12
White-throated Sparrow - 1
White-crowned Sparrow - 5
Northern Cardinal - 2
Red-winged Blackbird - 5
Eastern Meadowlark - 4
Common Grackle - 2
House Finch - 1
American Goldfinch - 6
House Sparrow - 10
Daryl Owens,
Oakwood VA
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