Welcome to Bristol: Tennessee Ornithological Society from you hosts and friends of the Bristol Bird Club Birders from Memphis to Southwest Virginia and places in between began arriving Thursday night and their journey to the mountains of the beautiful and vast Southern Appalachians for a delightful and bird-filled weekend. Early birders came to search the Ridge and Valley and the Cherokee National Forest Friday to get their first Tennessee record of a Ruffed Grouse. They were successful ! An excellent turnout continued to roll in until 10 p.m. as West Tennessee birders completed the long trek. As dawn breaks across the towering peaks of the great Blue Ridge range, early Saturday, field trips will spread out over an area nearly a 100 miles across to bird some of the nation's greatest cove hardwoods and famous heath balds in high elevation meadows. To the west a group will climb high into the Allegheny Mountains to the beautiful Laurel Bed Lake near the crest of the Clinch Mountain. During the course of the weekend field trip leaders will take parties to Whitetop Mountain in the heart of the Mount Rorgers National Recreation Area of the Jefferson National Forest. Then in the upper reaches of the New River watershed birders will go high into Grayson Highlands State Park along the famed and birdy Virginia Highlands Horse Trail. Not far away parties will wind south through the dramatic cove hardwoods of the Cherokee National Forest along Beaverdam Creek to Shady Valley -- Tennessee highest mountain valley and home to some of the most imperiled habitat of endangered species in the state. Others will bird the easy lowland trails and rolling ridges of the Ridge and Valley region at Bristol Tennessee's 2100-acre Steele Creek Park. Still others will seek great birding from Roan Mountain State Park to Carver's Gap and beyond, reaching altitudes near 6,000 feet in conifer forests along the North Carolina stateline. Rick Knight will lead trips Saturday and Sunday to Shady Valley to explore rare high-elevation mountain bogs owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy. From the ancient New River and the headwaters of the Tennessee River birders will listen and watch for rare breeding flycatchers, warblers, thrushes, woodpeckers and special finches of these great mountains. Saturday evening in Bristol, TOS members will gather for a sumptuous dinner and hear Dr. Richard Peake, author of Birds of the Virginia Cumberlands speak on the subject "Birds of the Cloud Islands," with an illustrated talk about Appalachian Mountain birds and mountain birds from other parts of the world.." What a wonderful weekend! We are delighted that such a great turnout has come for the Annual State Meeting of the Tennessee Ornithological Society. And, for those of you who are with us in sprit and envy, we miss you and hope you will come be with us next time. It is joy beyond belief to meet the good souls and faces that go with all the names seen here on TN-Birds. Your friends from the Bristol Bird Club once again present you with high quality and well organized birding in rare habitat of these mountains, just for talented and exciting birders like you ! You deserve the best and that is why we have the best here for you. Bristol Bird Club Bristol, TN-VA