[Bristol-Birds] Shady Valley foray extends nearly 80-year legacy of bird study.

From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:41:24 -0400
Was in Shady Valley today to tie up lose ends, returning 
keys to The Nature Conservancy.

This year's foray was the sixth: 1961-62-63-64-76 and
2011.  It has been 35 years since the last.

The first presence of The Nature Conservancy in the valley 
was 1979, Orchard Bog 1996,  Dickey preserve Birch Branch 
1997 and Quarry Bog 1998  -- all since the last foray.

Last weekend was an historic contribution by participants. 

Ken Dubke came to say hello.  He organized the first forays 
50 years ago.  We have attended all six.

It was not simply another social event.  It was fun, busy
and rewarding .  Field work was constant with long hours from 
dawn to dark.  Participants walked long miles over long mountain 
trails. Maybe more than 20 miles covered by four or five parties.

No birdwalks were scheduled. No important bird habitats
missed -- not northern hardwood forests, not bogs and wetlands,
not abandoned orchards, not riparian cove hardwoods, not
old growth forests.  

Owls and nightjars were recorded in the middle of the
night and in dark hours before dawn.  

Birders consumed 5 gallons of bottled water and carried 
most of that afield.  Janice and Fried Martin shopped the
water as well as four cases of soft drinks, cookies, chips, dips, 
several bags of ice and packed it for participants.  Amazingly, 
much of the ice was still frozen after three days storage in the
field.  Some foray participants ate three meals a day at the
Raceway Restaurant at the crossroads.  Some camped 
in a tent or car.

Others drove nearly 60 miles each way, each day, to participate.  
Some drove hundreds of miles one way to simply get there and 
paid for accommodations at hotels as far away as Abingdon and 
Mountain City.  Then they drove nearly 50 miles round trip each 
day and made the start of morning mountain hikes that started as 
early as 6 a.m.

This was no weekend for sissies

Rick Knight and Roy Knispel worked hard to organize field
parties and plan coverage.  Knight is busy compiling the
results.  There were many detailed field lists, often complete
with additional notes, elevations, coordinates and sometimes
habitat information.  There were no daily compilation events
and no meeting to compile the final tally.  Birders gathered to 
go thru the pile of field cards turned in each day, look over 
printouts and comb survey lists.

In the last many decades, several high elevation species
have extended their distribution well down the mountains 
into cool and shady mountain coves.  Some species have
probably disappeared from the avifauna and some have
probably appeared.  Some have increased their populations
and others decreased.  

We will eventually know more about the birds found
in this unique mountain valley and its special habitats.

Knight will author the effort, results and conclusions into
a paper which will be published in THE MIGRANT, the 
Tennessee journal of ornithology.

It will be there for resource managers, science investigators 
and birders to utilize for many decades.  Just as we are
benefiting now from the exploration, history and valued
records left for present generations by the first field workers
who arrived in Shady Valley nearly 80 years ago.

Those who gave their time and talent last weekend continue 
the legacy.  

Thank you.

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
[Bristol-Birds] Shady Valley foray extends nearly 80-year legacy of bird study.

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