[Bristol-Birds] Herons present in curous numbers -- Upper S.F. Holston watershed

From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:15:32 -0500
I suppose there are winter roosts or small communal feeding
areas used by small flocks of Great Blue Herons.  I don't have
experience with that.  

We are observing interesting congregations of 
herons in the Upper South Fork Holston River watershed
in Sullivan Co., TN this winter.  Have you seen the
same ?

We are still in the fall season for bird migration according
to the dates we collect data.  The last day of fall is next
Sunday.  Winter begins next Monday.  It sure seems like
winter in more ways than that.

The deep, cold air mass that plunged our region into 
cold weather when it came in on us 28 Oct, may have
pushed herons down our way.  Great Egrets and others
migrate thru here throughout November.  Black-crowned
Night Herons are in Northeast Tennessee all year but 
mainly in the Kingsport area during the breeding season
and elsewhere in fall migration and winter.  They are
absent as breeders from Southwest Virginia, data wise.  

We have evidence of Great Blue Heron migrants to our
region in winter.  A bird with a wing marker was seen at
Boone Lake in winter one year and was determined to
have been banded in the breeding season in Ohio. 

On 3 Nov I had 9 Great Blue Herons in sight at one moment
along the shores of the river at the South Holston Weir Dam.

Six days later 5 Black-crowned Night-Heron prompted a
special notice by Rick Phillips along Riverfront Rd. in
Kingsport.  There are birds found in that general region
and around the Wilcox bridge near Eastman company
in winter. 

Birds have been present in the Boone Lake
and Patrick Henry Lake areas of the South Fork during
winter for many years.  Seven were reported on the 1978
Kingsport CBC and then from 10 to 40 birds each count
throughout the 1980's to early 1990.  Six were found on the
count last year.  They have also been present in fall/winter
along the  Watauga River at Elizabethton in Carter Co.

On 11 Nov 2008, Roy Knispel reported a
Black-crowned Night-Heron had arrived at Middlebrook
Lake.










      I have numbered six herons with yellow numerals.
       Number 3 stands in the water, 4 on shore near
       walkway to pier, 5 on walkway where you step
       up on it, 6 is on the railing of the walkway at right.  A
       Black-crowned is just out of the photo to the right.

This morning (25 Nov) there were, perhaps, a dozen Great Blue
Herons at Middlebrook Lake in east Bristol Tennessee.
I counted eight birds standing together at the dock adjacent
to the pool.  Scattered over the impoundment were
three or four more.  I couldn't get a perfect handle
on them since birds were flying about every once in a while
and they were not all visible at the same time.

Michele Sparks saw a Black-crowned Night-Heron at
Middlebrook on 16 Nov and Sunday (23 Nov) had four
of the night-herons present.  I saw one still present near 
the pool today.  Michele also had a Black-crowned
Night-Heron at the Weir Dam on Sunday.

Black-crowned Night Herons have been fairly regular as
winter birds in the upper Beaver Creek Watershed in
northern Bristol Virginia at Clear Creek Lake in recent
years.  They began to show up on our Bristol Christmas
Bird Count with a bird there in 1998 and we've had one
or two reported on six of the past 10 counts.
The maximum count was three in 2004.

Middlebrook Lake is an impoundment on Sinking Creek
and is a tributary of the South Fork Holston which flows
to the river near Central Holston below South Holston
Dam and just downstream from the Weir.  The presence
of the Black-crowneds in these drainages in winter is
possibly the beginning of a new wintering distribution in
Sullivan Co.  

Steele Creek and Clear Creek are both tributaries of the
Beaver Creek watershed flowing to Boone Lake just
downstream from Bluff City.  It is noteworthy that this is
the original wintering drainage of the Bristol CBC birds
at Clear Creek.

Despite the large numbers of Great Blue Herons being
reported in up stream tailwaters of South Holston Dam
and downstream tributaries near the Weir,  there have
been few Great Blues reported to the list from Steele
Creek Park and the upper Beaver Creek drainage this winter.
The lack of Great Blues at Steele Creek may be a
reporting omission by editorial choice. 

I heard a Black-crowned Night-Heron calling well after
dark along Cedar Creek near my house on 19 Nov.  This
is apparently the first winter record for the species in 
that tributary of Beaver Creek in Bristol Tennessee.

The sudden severity of the weather to the north of us
may have played a role in all this.  However,  Andy Jones
reported very warm weather in Ohio when we were in our
freeze.  We've seen freezing of small ponds in our area
in the last week and that may have concentrated some
of the birds at Middlebrook.

It is always possible that we have a particularly abundant
spawn and other aquatic staple produced at Middlebrook 
this summer and the food source is very supportive.

Let me know if you have seen anything similar in other
areas.

Let's go birding. . . . 

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
[Bristol-Birds] Herons present in curous numbers -- Upper S.F. Holston watershed

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