[Bristol-Birds] East Tennessee Golden Eagle Group photographs first eagle.
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:29:45 -0500
The East Tennessee Golden Eagle Group made history
Tuesday (Feb. 22, 2011), when Todd Eastin and Lynn Eastin,
made this excellent photo of a Golden Eagle on Iron Mountain
in Shady Valley, TN -- Johnson County. This becomes the
first photo of the species for Shady Valley and maybe for
Johnson County.
The Bristol Bird Club's East Tennessee Golden Eagle Group
began monitoring in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee on
Feb 17, 2011 and the eagle was detected five days later. It is
the first Golden Eagle we know to have been photographed in
Tennessee as part of the cooperative efforts of the Eastern
Golden Eagle Working Group, an international partnership
founded in 2010 in order to address research gaps and
gather basic information on the distribution and ecology
of this magnificent raptor. The project is under the leadership
of biologists at West Virginia University.
The only previous record for the species in Shady Valley was a
bird seen Mar 6, 1993 when John Shumate and Lorrie Shumate saw
one perched on a limb in the morning snow along TN Rt. 133 in
the Beaverdam Creek gorge. On Jan 30, 2005, as the Shumates
returned from Mountain City heading north on U.S. 421 to Shady
Valley in Johnson County, TN., they again saw a Golden Eagle
and this time on the Mountain City side of Iron Mountain. As they
traveled up the mountain about a half-a-mile from the top at the
sharp turn back (still on the Mountain City side) there was a Golden
Eagle feeding on a deer carcass beside the road. They enjoyed a
great look at that bird.
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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