[TN-Bird] Re: Fwd: Greenbriar Pinnacle Peregrines
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "TN-Bird" <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 01:33:52 -0400
Keith Watson, who wrote the report that Charlie Muise sent to TN-Birds
regarding the Greenbriar Pinnacle Peregrines, is a Migratory Bird
Biologist, Division of Migratory Birds, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
Asheville, NC.
Let's go birding.....
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charlie"
To: "TN-Bird"
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 9:12 PM
Subject: [TN-Bird] Fwd: Greenbriar Pinnacle Peregrines
> Hi folks,
>
> Here are excerpts from the notes taken by Keith Watson during a trip
> he and I took to a location on the side of Greenbriar Pinnacle in
> Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A few details on precise
> location have necessarily been removed and this has been edited a bit
> for readability. It was a heck of a hike. Challenging, rugged, and
> even a thunder storm to chase us off the ridge at the end! Please
> note that at the bottom, Keith mentions a need for monitoring of this
> site. All monitoring would involve about a 10-mile round-trip hike,
> staying on trails - the park needs to limit off-trail trips. Let me
> know if you're interested in helping out, and I'll pass the word on.
>
> Charlie
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Charlie Muise and I hiked and bushwhacked up to near a rock outcrop
> on the ridge on the south flank Greenbriar Pinnacle, hoping to obtain
> a good view of the ledge where the Peregrine eyrie is located.
>
> On the hike up we both heard a wailing-whining call that was repeated
> several times per minute for about 15 minutes; calling was almost
> constant during this time period. We then headed upslope climbed
> the slope to the unnamed ridge top. After a lot of black flies and
> scrambling over and under rhododendron, mountain laurel, rocks, and
> downed Table Mountain Pine, we reached the rock outcrop (whew) and
> had lunch (12:15). We then tried to climb the rock outcrop but
> without proper safety equipment and gear decided it wasn't safe to
> try this.
>
> While retracing our steps off the outcrop, Charlie saw a Peregrine
> fly over us toward the cliffs, and whining-wailing calls eminated
> from that area.
>
> We settled in at our lunch spot at the base of the outcrop, set up
> Charlie's spotting scope and began searching for the birds and the
> eyrie location. We had a fair view of the eyrie ledge when the wind
> would move some branches out of the scopes view. From our location,
> we were still probably 50-75 meters below the ledge and 200 meters
> away; the outcropwould have been a little better. We heard several
> whining-wailing calls, and what Ratcliffe classifies as chupping.
> Both birds were observed on the ledge. The female was noticed to be
> overall brown in color, yellow legs, and grey or blue cere (not
> yellow). She had fairly coarse, vertical streaking on her breast,
> consistent with immature, or 2nd year, plumage. To me, this is not
> the same female that as present earlier in the year at this site, the
> early female being clearly adult in all aspects. But I could be
> wrong. Big mystery. Both birds were flying around the cliffs, the
> female eventually flew to a ledge spot several meters from the eyrie
> ledge and began to pick at something on the ledge. At first I
> thought the nest be in this location, but she flew off a just a short
> stay and never returned to that spot during out stay. This
> might be a food cache (larder).
>
> At that point both male and female appeared on the ledge. We took
> some photos with a Sony digital camera through Charlie's scope and
> magnified on the camera. The male landed under the large boulder on
> the right side of the ledge, the female directly in front of the
> hemlock tree on the brown lichen-moss like area. To the left of
> this you can see ejected excrement off the ledge face. The male
> eventually walked over to and behind the hemlock tree, out of sight,
> and chupping was heard.
>
> The female did the same but her tail end was partially observable but
> she seemed only to preen. The female backed out, stood on the ledge,
> and Charlie observed a blue band on the left leg and a yellow band on
> the right leg (maybe orange or faded red). She flew off to a tree
> perch and began her whining calls. Male came out later and flew off.
> Short time later, male flew back to ledge, was joined by female, and
> which time the male flew away; did he leave a prey item? He was not
> seen again. While the female was on the cliff ledge, I observed the
> left leg band to be green.
>
> On another return to the cliff ledge, I saw green again and her head
> appeared more bluish from behind, but still brown overall. I never
> saw the right leg band. Female flew to a roost perch below eyrie and
> began whining again. She continued to fly around and perch at
> different locations in the area.
>
> We found a better viewing spot just below our location, moved the
> scope, and had great looks at the ledge, but unfortunately, we did
> not see the birds return to the ledge. At that point we had to
> leave,
> uncertain of female age and status, and any leg band colors.
>
> However, both Charlie and I agreed that chicks seem likely present
> behind the hemlock tree, and the male was feeding them (he does this
> fairly early in the hatching stage). The female was almost
> continually whining which is an indication of the male to BRING FOOD!
> A food exchange likley occurred while Charlie and I were descending
> the outcrop and the female may have been picking up a larder item at
> the site a few meters away from the eyrie (where she was picking at
> something on the ledge). But we never did observe actual food
> exchange or prey items being handled by the Peregrines.
>
> The relationship between the pair seemed comfortable and no
> agression occurred between them, so if this is a different female,
> she seems to behaving pretty normally and has adapted to the site,
> the male, and the duty of food begging at least. She appeared to be
> in a moult.
>
> Perhaps the original female has disappeared and this new female has
> replaced her. Perhaps the male is doing the bulk of rearing at this
> point. Very curious.
>
> I recommend that observations be continued from the first week of
> June, say June 8th, at three day intervals to monitor when the young
> begin to fly. For now, I would focus on recruiting volunteers to
> observe from the overlook just before anticipated first flight of the
> juveniles at say, three day intervals so that accurate documentation
> of first flights can be observed. Based on what we think is
> happening at Greenbriar, and we've been close so far as to what's
> going on, juveniles should fledge around June 12th or 13th through
> the 20th. Then I'd have someone there on the 13th and every three
> days after to determine the number of juveniles fledged. It will
> certainly be an aerial spectacle once the young and adults begin to
> fly with each other.
>
> Anyway, if anyone wishes to observe the activity at the ledge, they
> will have to try and get near where Charlie and I were on Sunday, and
> I wouldn't recommend that except for very experienced off trail
> hikers. One other option that hasn't been tried is to come down from
> near the overlook area down a ridge to the rocks (from above and see
> what that offers) but that would mean about a 4.5 mile hike in, then
> bushwhack down to the rock outcrops, back up, then out 4.5 miles.
> Logistics of observation at this site are very difficult after leaf
> out.
>
>
> =====
> **************************************************
> Charlie Muise, Naturalist near
> Great Smoky Mountains National Park
>
> "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of cancer." -Edward Abbey
> **************************************************
>
>
>
>
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> wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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>
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
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-----------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society
Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
endorse the views or opinions expressed
by the members of this discussion group.
Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
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