[Bristol-Birds] Evening Grosbeaks staged up range as Hurricane Sandy approaches.
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2012 00:01:36 -0400
LOADING UP FOR EVENING GROSBEAKS
Not only are we looking
north with the Hurricane
Sandy storm track but
we are looking south for
Evening Grosbeaks.
Maybe in a week or
so grosbeaks will turn
up here in the Southern
Appalachians.
As the winter storm track moves across the Great Lakes and into the northeast,
eBird maps now shows us that Evening Grosbeaks have also joined the influx into
the north land like nothing we've seen in maybe decades.
We enjoyed great dispersal of the
species throughout the 1950's and into the 1970's with a few reports since the
1990's.
The first of the species in our region and first Tennessee state record came 22
Nov 1945 when four were found by Mary Fern Behrend near Milligan College in
Carter Co., TN.
Our last was perhaps Roger Mayhorn finding the species at his home 30 Nov 2010.
He found three Evening Grosbeaks at a feeder in his yard on Compton Mountain
in Buchanan County, VA 26 Jan 1998. He got nice photos with a small digital
camera. He had the species 17 April 2002 and later in 2004.
The last Northeast Tennessee record I know of was 12 Dec 2008 when Tom McNeil
found a male on Roan Mountain about 300 yards up towards the garden on the
Tennessee side of the gap.
During the 1960's and 70s, influx years of finches allowed us to band 403
Purple Finch, 420 Pine Siskins and 93 Evening Grosbeaks at Bristol Tennessee.
Those who have banded birds throughout that time well remember collectively
banding maybe 400 Evening Grosbeaks in our region Jan to May in 1978. The
first state specimen was taken 20 Dec 1965 on Roan Mountain and is now housed
at LSU Museum of Natural Science.
A good influx of Evening Grosbeaks may bring up to a dozen birds or more and
they might come with
the same frequency and numbers as Purple Finch.
Wallace Coffey
Bristol TN
Other related posts:
- » [Bristol-Birds] Evening Grosbeaks staged up range as Hurricane Sandy approaches. - Wallace Coffey
