Pete Range and I decided to try a little high elevation birding today, Jun 8.
We started out at Hampton Creek Cove where I birded from the parking area while
Pete walked up the gravel road to the 2nd gate area.
He had: Alder Flycatcher---Golden -wing Warbler---Chestnut-sided Warbler and
Chats
I birded around the parking area where I found:
Common Yellowthroat---Yellow Warbler---Indigo
Bunting---Catbird---Red-tailed Hawk---Wild Turkey calling
We then drove up the mountain to the big curve above the Roan Knob housing
area, this is where we use to find Golden-wing Warblers regularly but in the
past few years not so much. We played the Golden-wing tape and a bird came in
to investigate. This bird turned out to be BREWSTERS type hybrid Golden-wing
Warbler. This bird had the golden crown & large yellow wing bars, but had a
white throat with a thin dark line through the eye. The bird never did sing
for us but responding to the Golden-wings taped call. This bird also had a
USGS metal band on the right leg and a light blue band on the left leg.
Hopefully someone knows some of the bander's ID marks.
We then drove to the 1st pull off past Hummingbird Hill to listen for the Least
Flycatcher, which we did find. While watching the least Flycatcher we heard a
family gathering of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers playing around and calling back &
forth to each other. We observed at least 3-5 young birds and 2-3 adult birds
enter- acting and just having a good time. At this point we could see these
birds playing around with each other on both sides of the road.
Then we went to Carvers Gap and as soon as we pulled into the parking area we
had a group of 8-10 Pine Siskins playing around in the spruce trees. At this
point Pete found his nemesis bird for East Tenn. He had found a small group of
3 young Red Crossbills (brown streakings on their sides and crossed bills).
While observing the se young birds we had 2 other crossbills flying over head
giving the distinctive 'yep-yep' calls. Pete was a happy camper.
We also had at Carvers Gap: Alder Flycatcher---Canada &
Chestnut-sided Warblers---Golden-crowned Kinglets and 2 Ravens.
All in all an excellent day of birding.
Glen Eller
Kingsport
