[Bristol-Birds] Sharp-shinned Hawk nest at Whitetop Mountain
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 14:48:59 -0400
Bristol Area Birders:
Last week, while conducting field work on Whitetop Mtn Road, in Southwest
Virginia, U.S. Forest Service biologists Cecil Thomas, Steve Croy, Shane Hanlon
(U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) and Dr. Carol Hardy found a Sharp-shinned Hawk
nest downslope, at about 4,800 feet, in a mature red spruce, with at least one
nestling visible. Paul Hamel (1982) has it listed as uncommon in the
Appalachians and it is only the second Sharp-shinned Hawk nest Hardy had found
(the first was at Oak Ridge National Environmental Research Park), so she
believed this to be fairly unusual.
This is a valuable record for the Southern Appalachian avifauna.
Sharp-shinned Hawk nesting records in the southern Blue Ridge of Virginia and
Tennessee are nearly nonexistent. This is one of our most rare breeding
diurnal raptors.
George Hall (1983) believed that West Virginia Sharp-shinns were probably most
common in the the northern hardwood forest at higher elevations. It prefers
conifers. It breeds in the higher elevation of the Unakas in Tennessee and
Arthur Stupka (1963) reported that Dr. Jame Tanner saw one carrying food (June
2, 1954) at 5,000 feet near Mt. LeConte. Tanner believed it could be nesting.
The Alleghenies and the Virginia Cumberlands have the most substantial breeding
populations of Sharp-shinned Hawks in Virginia. Likewise it is well
distributed in the Cumberlands of Kentucky and Tennessee but not to the east.
It is much like the Red-shouldred Hawk's virtual absence as a breeder from much
of the Ridge & Valley as well as the Unaka Blue Ridge. The Sharp-shinned and
Red-shouldered may enjoy a few common denominators in the coalfield geology,
forest histroy and the Clinch and Powell drainages in general.
Let's go birding......
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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