[Bristol-Birds] Soups 'n Sparrows provides great birding on a snowy Saturday

From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 16:55:52 -0500
      Soups  'n  Sparrows
                                 February Birding Festival
                    Provides great birding on a snowy Saturday


Birders attending as first-year-festival
participants, enjoyed a snowy, windy, day
of birding as the Bristol Bird Club launched
its first annual February Bird Festival, a
 Soups  'n  Sparrows birding event, at the South 
Holston Dam TVA Reservation area. 
The snow blew sideways with a 10 mph wind
during much of the day but back in the coves
and power lines with windscreen sides and 
vegetation it was comfortable and enjoyable.
The target bird was the American Tree Sparrow
but it was not found.  

Richard Kretz phoned in to the event at 9:21 a.m. to offer encouragement by 
reporting that his
American Tree Sparrow, coming to his home near Lebanon in Russell Co., VA, was 
still at his feeder
today and that the species had not yet left the region.


By noon birders sought shelter from the elements
and gathered at the South Holston Ruritan Club
just around the corner to take part in their annual
Bean Soup Dinner which is a fundraiser for their
educational scholarships they present each year.

Charlie Owens, who heads up the event, took a
tour for us and counted out 93 crock pots of
delicious beans, stews, soups and chili.  It was an
absolute all-you-can-eat lunch. More than 100

recipes were being served to the public for the day.  While the BBC was there, 
75 crock pots
with as many recipes were being served.  Owens took us into a back storage room 
where another
18 crock pots were being kept hot in order to move them to the service area.  
Members of the
Ruritan were expected to bring an addition 15-20 crock pots with different 
homemade recipes 
during the afternoon. 
At the far left is the
serving line spread
of crock pots and
the photo to the
right includes the
18 additional 
hot pots of more
recipes waiting to
move out to the
front line. Hundreds
of slices of cakes,
pies and whole
tables of puddings
and drinks were
ready to serve. 
All of the cakes
were homemade.
With drink: $6.00

 Back in the woods, birders walked stream and river banks, power lines and 
forested trails
 making lists of the birds seen.  As the morning grew later, more birds were 
active in the
 woods and open areas.
 
 The most fun bird of the day was a beautiful, yellow, Pine Warbler found in 
the woods with
 a flock of juncos, Eastern Bluebirds and Northern Cardinals.
 
 
 



















 A quick, long-range, digiscope of the Pine Warbler was poor, but served to
 help document the species for purposes of the festival weir dam list. The
 species is a rare winter resident in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest VA.
 It was first seen in the woods with a mixed and varied flock of small birds.
 However, it moved to a large spans of open grass area well away from the
 nearby pines and other trees.  It stayed a long period, feeding slowly on the
 ground and mostly at the edge of the parking lot but always in the vegetation.
 It mostly was in association with numerous Eastern Bluebirds which were
 also feeding in the grass.
 
A nice effort was made to relocate our target bird, the American Tree Sparrow,
found at the South Holston Reservation last weekend by Mike Sanders and Gary 
Cooper and photographed there.

Cooper kept the bird list for the day and will probably post that later.
[Bristol-Birds] Soups 'n Sparrows provides great birding on a snowy Saturday

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