[Bristol-Birds] Historical Snippet - May 16, 1998
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2008 01:14:30 -0500
BBC Snippet
Middlebrook Lake Feb 2008
Nearly 30 years ago Bristol Bird Club birders got their first look at the now
prominent waterfowl Mecca known as Middlebrook Lake in Bristol, TN.
Most of those first visits included riding a jeep through the fields along
the shore. It was inundated pasture land and there were no trees
except along the ridge.
Just one house was in the subdivision we see today across from
the wooded shoreline. The roads were in place for future
development.
For nearly a decade, birders knew it simply as a big farm owned by
Joseph Carmack, 2061 King College Rd. He lived in the two-story brick
house now standing at that address. It was built by his grandfather in 1884.
Carmack owned most of the land on both sides of the road. When modern
day birders first birded in that area during the late 50's all roads from King
College and beyond were dirt. His daughter lives there now but the farm was
sold off. Middlebrook subdivision was carved from that holding.
Carmack was not friendly with young birders. He was always suspicious
of the kids with binoculars looking over into his farm from along the road.
He would often come out shouting for the birders to move on.
It was there on July 27, 1959 that Wallace Coffey got his lifer Barn Swallow
despite the fact field notes report he had seen six or eight on the wire in
front of
Carmack's barn once before.
The lake was under construction in the late 1960's but birding began there
just as soon as it filled with water. The narrow, winding channel of Sinking
Creek, which ran at about elevation 1780 feet, came down from Virginia
near the wooded ridge where most waterfowl hang out. Then it turned and
flowed straight towards the spillway of the dam as we know it today. This
is the deepest area of the lake and is right under the hilltop condos near
the manholes which stand in the water at the shoreline.
Birders suffered a setback in the late 1970s when Middlebrook Dam finally
gave way in a huge storm and a flood broke down the spillway, draining
the lake. It was then that birders got a closer look at the topography of
the impoundment. It was some time before the impoundment was again
inundated.
Hooded Merganser began to winter there by 1987 with 67 birds and then
increasing steadily for a decade until reaching 162 in 1993 and then soaring
above 300 in the new millennium. The record of 308 was recorded on the
2004 Bristol CBC.
Bristol Virginia's Municipal Solid Waste Landfill began operating
just across the stateline in 1986. It was established in an abandoned
rock quarry only one-half mile northwest of Middlebrook Lake. Until
the landfill began to accept trash, Bristol had few Ring-billed Gulls
in winter. Most gulls were at South Holston Lake and Boone Lake.
Only one time did the Bristol CBC have more than a hundred birds
tallied on the count (150 in 1975) until 1990 when the count was 230.
In 1992 it has tripped to 600 and a decade later the 2004 CBC hit
1,341. This year it was 840. Hundreds of gulls on Middlebrook
on a given day in winter is nothing new.
It is easy to see a trend that closely parallels Hooded Mergansers. The
lake is a safe haven for roosting and loafing when the gulls are not
away for breakfast or lunch. It is easy to watch clouds of gulls either
rise from the water and fly off to the northwest towards the landfill or
come in by the hundreds returning from that direction.
Following the introduction of the giant Canada Goose into the region in
the middle 1970s by TVA and the state wildlife agencies, the Bristol
CBC had never totaled more than 33 birds on any winter count. Usually
there were none. They began to surge in 1988. That year the total hit
101. By the year 2000 the all time peak of 882 was found on the count.
The CBC count was 859 this year. Again, the build up of geese at
Middlebrook and elsewhere is similar. The same could be said for
Mallards which did not begin to establish themselves as a nesting population
here until the 70's. The first summer birds ever were 8 pairs at Steele Creek
Park with free flying birds capable of extended flight May 16 to Jul 21, 1970
(Brent Rowell). The first nest known in the region was June 23, 1979
downstream from the bridge below the South Holston Weir. It had
11 eggs with a female on the nest (Coffey).
Obviously, winter numbers of mergansers, mallards, geese and gulls
at Middlebrook and Clear Creek have only served as live decoys for
many other species. That accounts for the species richness and
growing populations. Particularly at Middlebrook Lake.
In the fall of 1997 an Abingdon High School
junior, Sarah Ellen Garrett, had shown up looking
for a field research project. A biology teacher
at neighboring Patrick Henry High School,
Beverly Eason, knowing of Coffey's mentoring
young people in field biology, sent her his way.
Garrett met with Coffey and Kevin Hamed, park
naturalist at Steele Creek Park Nature Center
and a plan was formulated:
A comparison of three small lakes in Sullivan County, Tennessee
and Washington County, Virginia as habitat for waterbirds during the
winter of 1997-1998. 95 pp.
She focused her research comparing Clear
Creek Lake near Exit 7, Middlebrook Lake and Steele Creek Lake.
Everyone wanted to know much more about the habitats and especially
to know more about why there were no significant wintering waterfowl
populations at Steele Creek Lake.
Garrett quickly took the birding community by a storm with her intensity,
hard work and dedication to the project. She went to work on snowy
roads and in snow flurries and finish the project with an amazing flare
in April 1998.
Kevin Hamed was a loyal supporter of the project as he
was for some 17 such research projects down thru the years. Since he
left the nature center in August 2003, no one on staff at the nature
center as been able to catch that updraft of energy. No significant
research has been initiated by the park for nearly five years.
Always recognizing great youthful talent, Garrett was hired as a student
naturalist at the park and continued to produce amazing research.
Eventually she graduated with honors at Abingdon, earned a B.S. in
biology at Va Tech and is finishing her Ph.D. at Wake Forest.
But she didn't leave until after she had produced another valuable and
fascinating project at the park:
A Comprehensive Aquatic Fauna Survey of Three Creeks in Steele
Creek Park, Bristol, Tennessee and Reintroduction of Native Species,
1999, 164 pp.
In 1997-1998, the Bristol Bird Club quickly stepped forward to help
fund the lake study project and play a major role in boosting this young
biologist along her way. Garrett was loyal without fault to the BBC
and regularly attending meetings and field trips.
On Friday evening, Sept 18, Ruth Beck, a longtime outstanding leader
of the Virginia Society of Ornithology, arrived at Bristol to be the
speaker for the BBC annual banquet. The biology faculty member from
William & Mary College had already seen the amazing work of our
gal Garrett. Beck rushed her with a recruiting pitch and we suddenly
knew what had lured her here. Garrett soon added William & Mary
to a list of small colleges from Massachusetts, to Chicago but also
including Appalachian State and Virginia Tech.
Young people were encouraged
not only to write their research
something like a thesis but
to publicly defend it. On the
evening of April 30, 1998
administrators from the Washington
County school system, college
and high school students and faculty
from all over the region came
to the Steele Creek Nature Center
for her seminar. Also came WCYB-TV5
with a camera crew and recorded
the entire presentation front to end.
Afterwards a news reporter hit Garrett with many standup Q&A. The BBC was
as proud as peaches.
The results of her 22 weeks of winter research looked great. She
was encouraged to present a paper before the VSO 1998 state meeting
paper session at Mountain Lake. A Virginia Tech staff member with
the College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources, who
was putting together the session, balked. No! Not a high school junior's
science paper. Finally it was agreed that she could have a poster along
with others. No. BBC stood its ground and said this is a really neat
piece of research. Give this gal a chance. No. Va Tech stood firm.
Finally it was decided she would present her paper at VS0.
A large delegation of BBC birders were on hand when the paper session
got underway just after 1 p.m. on May 16, 1998. She got sandwiched in between
graduate students from Virginia Tech, a retired Ph.D. ornithologist, another
student from Longwood College, two more from Virginia Tech and
there were posters for others somewhere in another room.
The BBC was beaming like a beacon as they watched their prize present.
She was cold under questions, direct and solid with answers. It was more
than any from Bristol could have expected.
A group of what BBC was told were three college faculty people sat somewhat
as a jury and two weeks later announced Sarah Ellen Garrett of Abingdon and
the BBC and Steele Creek Park Nature Center was judge the best paper.
It was announced in the VSO Newsletter. What a tremendous finish to this
chilly winter project.
Virginia Tech now wanted Sarah Garrett and she arrived on campus and had
a great experience.
In a nutshell her study did conclude that due to effects of human interaction,
water quality, original stream channels, lake depth and the weather that
winter, more waterfowl were determined to use both Middlebrook and Clear
Creek rather than Steele Creek. That winter 25 species used Middlebrook, 14
were found at Clear Creek and 11 at Steele Creek. There were 14 species
of waterbirds at Middlebrook which were not recorded at Steele Creek.
Middlebrook had 11 species that did not show up at Clear Creek.
There were 8 diving duck species and 8 dabbling ducks species at Middlebrook.
There were 428 divers surveyed and 1,194 dabblers.
Compared to Steele Creek, there were three diving species and three
dabbling. There the total number of diving individuals turned out to be four
with
908 dabblers. There were no exclusive species at Steele Creek Lake. The
other lakes produced higher numbers of American Coots and Pied-billed Grebe
than did Steele Creek.
Middlebrook had a pH of 8.9 and was better able to support forage fish
populations. The others had higher pH. The original stream channel was
believed to attract fish due to the abundant supply of nutrients which could
support aquatic food staple. The stream channel provided both a
"comfortable" area along the wooded ridge away from human interactions
for the more wild species but also a food source.
Steele Creek Lake is shallow over much of the area nearest the main
recreation area and there is lots of human disturbance along the shoreline.
The gorge is deep, reaching down to nearly 30 feet.
Middlebrook is very shallow and a person might be able to walk the length
without being over their heads in water except for the stream channel
structure. However, it is of note that it is shallow and today has significant
aquatic vegetation.
Clear Creek and Steele Creek froze four times during that winter study and
Middlebrook just once.
from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club
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