[TN-Bird] Fantastic Weekend Birding in East Tennessee

Greetings Tennessee and Local to Bristol Area Birders,

  I haven't seen a report from the Shady Valley trip taken by the 
Bristol Bird Club and the Lee and Lois Herndon (Elizabethton) Club so I 
will include that here, but first Friday evening...

  This weekend was quite a good one in East Tennessee for birdwatching, 
at least for me.

 Friday

  Friday afternoon I met up with Don Holt to visit some of his hot spots 
in western Washington County. On our way to Bowmantown, we spot a large 
group of small birds and stop to investigate. In a large, cow eaten 
field, we observe 300+ American Pipits.

  After we reach Bowmantown we drive to Saylor Hill Rd where Don had 
located a roost of Northern Harriers. His high from the previous night 
had been 12 and I was hoping for at least half that. Getting there 
about an hour early, we decide to ride around the loop so I can get a 
good look at all angles of the property hosting the roost. We have 
Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Northern Mockingbird, 2 Red-tailed 
Hawks, and a few House Sparrows before deciding to get snack while 
waiting on the roost to come in. As we turned back on the main highway, 
Don spots the first 2 Northern Harriers. We make it to the store and 
back in time to still see the 2 Harriers in a tree growing in the 
center of the property. We get a good vantage point in time for the 
main show to begin. Soon more Harriers were flying over the field, some 
hunting and some interacting with each other. By the time that night 
fell over the field, we had the same high count as the night before - 
12.

 Saturday

  Saturday, for me, started around noon. I met up with a lot of birders 
and so I don't leave anybody out, I will omit names in this report. You 
know if you were there. :)

  I met up with a small group from the Elizabethton Club for lunch in 
Elizabethton before their early trip to upper Stoney Creek to the 
rehabilitator. Since I hadn't been birdng yet, I decided to pass on 
this phase of the trip (I am sure they had a great time) and I went to 
Little Wilbur Dam where there were the usual Bufflehead (number down to 
just over 100) and 4 Ring-necked Ducks. Up at the Watagua Dam over look 
was the wintering Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in its tree and a few 
Ring-billed Gulls flying over the water. Bluebirds were calling in the 
distance and the view was spectacular. I meander my way through the 
back roads over to Stoney Creek Rd with no significant bird sightings 
and drive on to Shady Valley to meet the rest of the group.

  Before the set meeting time, the small group, whom I had met back up 
with, toured Shady Valley and had the following birds - Red-tailed Hawk 
and a small group of Rusty Blackbirds in Quarry Bog and a single Wood 
Duck on a small pond in the upper valley.

  That evening the Bristol Bird Club and the Lee and Lois Herndon 
(Elizabethton) club had trips to Shady Valley to see if the American 
Woodcock was performing its display flight to attract females. A large 
group from both groups met at the crossroads in Shady Valley and headed 
over to Orchard Bog to finish the day birding and hopefully to see some 
displaying Woodcock. After we arrived at Orchard Bog, more and more 
birders kept showing. I would hazard a guess that there was 20-25 
birders.

  While we did have a Woodcock (I will get to that in a bit), there was 
a surprise guest that outshone the targeted bird. While we were waiting 
on dusk to settle over the valley and after seeing American Robins 
(500+ in a 5 minute continual stream over the bog), Red-winged 
Blackbirds (25 or so), Song Sparrows, and Rick Knight's sighting of an 
abnormally large number of Field Sparrows there was a familiar clacking 
sound ebbing from the swamps being redeveloped in the bog. After a 
number of clicks and clacks, everybody agreed we were hearing a 
VIRGINIA RAIL. After the excitement and the light died down for the 
evening we started hearing another familiar sound -- PEENT. We only 
heard it a couple of times and everybody started looking for flight 
activity. Seeing none, we headed back to where the barn sits near the 
road, but still had all eyes on the bog. Finally the ever prepared Don 
Holt, walked out the path with his strong light to see if he could find 
one. The darker (and colder) it got, the group started feeling of pang 
of not seeing a flight this evening. When out of nowhere, a strong 
light shown brightly from the swamp which immediately got everyone's 
attention. Quickly we picked out the Woodcock flying through the light. 
I am still not sure if they bird was doing a mating flight because it 
was flying more horizontally instead of vertically, but it was still a 
flying Woodcock and everyone got excited to be able to see one. With 
the targeted bird under our collective belts, we all head to eat and 
warm up after a highly successful evening.

 Sunday

  Sunday turned out to be a short day because of rain. Tom McNeil, JT 
McNeil, Allen Trently (and Jane), and myself did some local birding in 
the Wilbur area. The same birds were seen as the day before except for 
the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker(Little Wilbur). In the surrounding back 
roads we saw White-crowned Sparrows, Northern Cardinals, Northern 
Mockingbird, Carolina Chickadees, Tufted Titmouses, Mourning Doves, and 
Song Sparrows. As the rain picked up we decided to call it a day. They 
dropped me off at my where I went to watch the Daytona 500 that I had 
been recording.

 Long but very productive weekend birding in East Tennessee.

 Rob Biller
  Elizabethton, TN 
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