[Bristol-Birds] Elizabethton night-heron news
- From: dnldhlt@xxxxxxx
- To: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 05 Jul 2005 21:11:00 -0400
Sunday, 03 JULY 2005
Elizabethton, Carter County, TN
D. Holt
Sunday afternoon around 7 pm, following a tip from a fisherman, I saw a
Black-crowned Night-Heron on the Watauga River, between Sycamore Shoals and The
Bent. I have had reports of this or similar birds in this area for the last
year, but this is only the second I have seen there myself, and the first this
year.
Earlier Sunday I discovered a new Yellow-crowned Night-Heron nest in the colony
on Sycamore Shoals Rd. near Blackbottom Shoals. That would make a new total of
five nests known at that site. The new nest at Blackbottom Shoals is still
small and flimsy. I could easily see an adult on the nest from below by
looking through the nest, but saw no sign of young. The nest was located in a
spot that would have been hard for me to miss on my previous visits, so I
believe it was constructed after June 17. Another nest at another site, the
one known from last year at Sycamore Shoals State Historic Area, was predated
around a month ago and one of the adult pair apparently killed and the nest now
abandoned. I am wondering if the new nest at Blackbottom Shoals could be a
second attempt by the survivor from the predated nest at Sycamore Shoals, but I
see no way of knowing. On the other four nests at Blackbottom Shoals, I saw:
1) one adult and one large nestling - (2) three large nestl
ings - (3) one adult and two large nestlings - (4) four large nestlings. In
addition I saw two adults foraging in nearby Blackbottom Shoals, and later in
the day I saw one adult fly across the river downstream of Sycamore Shoals, so
for the day I tallied 16 Yellow-crowned Night-Herons and 1 Black-crowned
Night-Heron in Elizabethton.
Also seen Sunday on Sycamore Shoals Rd. near the Animal Shelter was a
Red-shouldered Hawk. On the Elizabethton Summer Bird Count on June 17, there
were 3 Red-shouldered Hawks present there in the woods behind the Sewage
Treatment Plant, calling repeatedly, with one calling a little slower and more
drawn out. We saw the slow one through the trees, enough to encourage us to
assert that the calls were not Blue Jays but Red-shouldereds. I surmised that
the pair had fledged at least one young, although I never did positively
observe nesting.
Don Holt
Johnson City, TN
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