[Bristol-Birds] Historical Snippet - Mar 6, 1938
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 3 Feb 2008 17:30:12 -0500
BBC Snippet
March 6, 1938 Among the special egg sets in the East Tennessee
State University Biology Department's specimen collections is what
modern day birders and ornithologists believe may be the last documented
nesting of the Peregrine Falcon (Duck Hawk of old) in Northeast Tennessee
or Southwest Virginia.
The eggs are known as the Robert B. Lyle collection,
given to ETSU in the early '70s by the Johnson City
resident who collected them over a 40-year period
when collecting eggs was a hobby among some
naturalist.
Lyle (1888-1971), in his years of failing health, had
become a close friend of Wallace Coffey who often
visited with him in his home and corresponded with
him while in a VA hospital in North Carolina. The two
spent many days and long hours talking about egg
collecting, localities and birding records of the region.
Coffey had a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service scientific
collecting permit for birds, eggs and such. He also
held state permits for Tennessee and Virginia. Since Coffey was the only
person in the region, outside of a university or qualified museum, who
could legally take and possess the eggs. Lyle gave the collection to Coffey
on a promise that it would eventually be moved to a teaching collection
somewhere in the region.
Coffey's inventory of the collection found it contained 2,776 eggs in 641
clutches (egg sets) contained in 566 boxes. A 1972 inventory by
Dr. Jerry Nagel reported 3,092 eggs in 637 clutches, representing 392
species.
In addition, Lyle gave Coffey many color slides of birds, photo albums of
bird's nest and eggs and, at his death, left him his personal nature
library.
The now famous photo
of the Peregrine nest is
only owned as copies
by a handful of people
who have prints
given in honor of their
contribution to regional
ornithology and bird study.
One original is known
to exist. The 8X10 was
given to Rick Knight
for his work with area
bird records and his hacking
of Peregrines, both at Roan
Mountain and in the Great
Smoky Mountains National
Park.
Coffey owns what appears
to be a 4X5 and a 5X7 copy
of the original which has
the personal notes made
by Lyle both on the face and
on the back of the black and white print. Lyle, and his birding companion,
Bruce P. Tyler (1874-1975) of Johnson City, are believed to be the first bird
photographers in the Mountain Empire Region.
Also among Lyle's photo collection is
one of the great Devil's Looking
Glass on the Nolichucky River just
downstream from the I-26 bridge at
Erwin in Unicoi County, TN.
His ink notes on the back say:
"nesting site of Duck Hawk
'Devil's Looking Glass' Unicoi
Co., Tennessee" The same
information appears at the
bottom of the photo on the
front. This photo was pasted
in an album of his bird pictures
and he may have added that
information on the front so it
could be seen. However, the
ink notes on the back are still
in good shape and very clear
after having been removed from
the pages. A second photo
is looking down on the nest.
In this second photo two people can be seen below. Both of these
pictures appear to have been made the same day or same season.
Some of the details on the back have been damaged from removing this
print from the album. It apparently says that this is a photo looking down
from above the nest but words which are clear and easily read:
".....river from 'Devils Looking Glass' directly above nest of Duck Hawk"
Lyle told Coffey (Bristol Herald Courier, Mar 7, 1971, p 8B) that
he well remembered the Slaughter's Bluff nest in of March 6, 1938,
on the South Fork Holston River in Sullivan Co.
"It was a beautiful day and it had been cold just like in the past few days
and the snow had melted," he remembered. "We had discovered the nest
by throwing pebbles over a ledge where we thought she had her nest and
the falcon flew out. It was about ten or 12 feet down and I went over
on a rope ladder. There I found a nest depression scratched out in the
dirt and the eggs were beautiful. They were cream colored and had
specks all over them that gave an almost brick red color. There was a
rock overhang that practically covered the nest to protect the eggs. The
ground wasn't sandy but more like clay where the depression was made."
Lyle went on to explain that "these were the last eggs and the last nest
ever found in the region as far as I know."
While Coffey has not found a location on maps of a locality called Slaughter's
Bluff in Sullivan Co., he did learn from Lyle that the nest was in the cliff
face
where Patrick Henry Lake is today. It is now known as Dorn's Bluff. That
cliff
face is south facing and just upstream from the I-81 bridge over the S.F.
Holston
River (Patrick Henry Lake). He also collected eggs of the Black Vulture
from holes in that cliff.
In The Migrant for June 1933, F. M. Jones, describes
two nests examined by himself and R. B. Lyle, the finder, near Johnson City,
Tenn. B. P. Tyler of that city, wrote to Albert F. Ganier that "a third pair
has been located on Roan Mountain." The Peregrines were nesting all
through the North Carolina mountains and Sprunt and Murray, in The Auk
(1930, p. 563) recorded seven of them on August 1, 1930, from the top of
Grandfather Mountain, Avery Co., North Carolina.
Jones wrote in the December, 1933, The Migrant, page 43, that pairs are
known in the Johnson City area and "have been visited by myself." He
credits Lyle with finding them. The first was in an area found to be
inaccessible
due to a tremendous overhang of the steep rock cliffs. The second pair of
located
by Lyle on "April 2nd of this year-1933". They went to the site on April 5,
1933
and found birds present. Finally Jones returned April 14th. He went over the
cliffs and found one egg in the hole which the hawk had rounded out. They went
back on the 22nd and there was still just one egg.
Three weeks later (May 14) they returned and saw the male present. The
rocks at that particular spot were well whitened with excrement. Jones
went down on a rope to the nesting ledge and found a set of three eggs.
The nest was on a flat ledge 24 inches broad, the female hawk flew around
constantly, making a considerable fuss, and at one time coming in very close.
Jones collected the eggs which proved to be perfectly fresh, and
measured as follows: 2.25x1.74, 2.17x1.80, and 2.12x1.74. Jones signed
the published note in 1933 stating that his residence was Independence, Va.
FOOT NOTE: The Lyle egg collection, was stored at Coffey's home in Bristol
for more than a year. Many of the eggs were studied there by Dan W. Anderson,
a graduate student from the University of Wisconsin, who used the raptor eggs
to
determine their egg shell thickness. Many of the eggs were prior to the use of
DDT and the measurements were used to establish a "control." Anderson flew
to Tri-City Airport and spent the day of March 1, 1968 with Coffey and the
collection
taking measurements of the egg shell thickness and egg weights.
With Dr. Joseph J. Hickey (author of Peregrine Falcon Population, 1969)
Anderson
published Chlorinated Hydrocarbons and Eggshell Changes in Raptorial and
Fish-Eating
Birds (Science 11 October 1968: Vol 162, pp 271-273). Their paper: Eggshell
changes for
certain North American birds, 1972, Proceedings of the International
Ornithological
Congress 15:514-540, followed.
from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club
.
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