Friday (3/8) in Holston Valley, just off U.S. 421, in Sullivan County, TN, I found a very noisy and active Red-shouldered Hawk. It was soaring and stooping at another Red-shouldered perched in a grove of sycamore trees in the bottomlands of a very large sink. The noisy bird would soar well above the woodlot and then dive at the perched bird. At one time I estimated it could have reached a height of 500 to 600 feet before it dropped. I checked the woodlot carefully from the road and found the second bird. I watched it for a long period and then discovered a third Red-shouldered in the woods. At one one point I could hear up to three birds calling at once. Red-shouldered Hawks migrate through the area in February and birds are on eggs as early as late March in areas to the south of us in Tennessee. It would be a significant find if they are, in fact, on territory and nest. Red-shouldered Hawks are not known to nest in the Ridge and Valley Region of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. At least not anywhere in the Upper Holston River drainage. Ken Dubke discovered a nest of this species in Shady Valley, Johnson County, TN during the early 1960s. Even that nest, while in the Upper Holston River drainage, is from the Blue Ridge. Dick Peake reports in his book on the Virginia Cumberlands that there have been a number of nesting records in that region from 1937 to 2000. It is much more bundant in the breeding season west of the Clinch Mountains. Let's go birding..... Wallace Coffey Bristol ************************************************* BRISTOL BIRDS NET LIST This is a regional birding list sponsored by the Bristol Bird Club to facilitate communications between birders and bird clubs of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. It serves the Russell County Bird Club, Herndon Chapter TOS, Greeneville TOS Chapter, Blue Ridge Birders Club, Butternut Nature Club, Buchanan County Bird Club, Bristol Bird Club, Clinch Valley Bird Club and Cumberland Nature Club. -------------------------------------------------- You are subscribed to Bristol-Birds. To post to this mailing list, simply send an email to: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send an email to bristol-birds-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the one word 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. -------------------------------------------------- Wallace Coffey, Moderator jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423)764-3958