[Bristol-Birds] breeding Bald Eagles found on Boone Lake in Sullivan County

From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2013 13:40:25 -0500






















 Thanks to a nice tip posted to Bristol Birds Net by Glen Eller, on behalf of 
his daughter, 
 the apparent nesting site of a pair of Bald Eagles at  Boone Lake in Sullivan 
Co., TN 
 has been located.

 "On Sunday afternoon (Jan 20), my daughter, Lia, had a pair of adult Bald 
Eagles soaring 
  over the Tri-Cities Baptist Church off exit 10 on I-26.  She said they were 
in sight for 
  about 10 minutes then left going towards Bristol," Eller posted.

 That was a spark that rekindled our fire to hunt that pair.  By all directions 
and history of
 eagles at Boone Lake, this soaring pair was within the expected six-mile 
soaring radius 
 we apply to local pairs.  We immediately went to the I-26 location and set out 
a
 search plan in the direction she saw them fly -- towards Boone Dam.  The area 
was
 covered for six hours the first day with nothing found.

 All indication suggested this is what we had called the "Land Between the 
Rivers" pair
 which was frequenting an area along the first mile of the Watauga River 
embayment of
 Boone Lake up to River Mile Marker 15.  Last nesting season, a pair loosely 
hung out 
 together on the Sullivan County shore of the Watauga River embayment but soon 
left.  
 They were never relocated.  There was no evidence they were nesting.

 They seem to have reappeared in the South Fork Holston River embayment and 
have been
 renamed the Haw Ridge Pair for 2013.  We've spent enough hours and many, many
 miles trying to get stability to what we believe is the former "Land Between 
the Rivers"
 pair.  The new location is 1.5 miles north of the last known location of the 
"Land Between the
 Rivers" pair.   It is 9 miles NW of the Winged Deer Park/Austin Springs pair 
location and 
 about 5.5 miles SW of the "Rainbow Bridge" pair, downstream from Bluff City.  
Both of the
 later pairs had failed nesting attempts last year and have possibly relocated.

 On Friday (1 Feb), we watched this pair of adult eagles mating on a limb of a 
very tall tree which 
 towers above a ridge just SW of Point 4 in the South Fork Holston River 
embayment of Boone 
 Lake and likewise SW of the address 505 Steadman Road.  This was about 3 p.m.

 They perched in the tall tree with a sub-adult that is probably not mature 
enough to breed.  It 
 seemed to be a third-year bird.  So the origin of this bird as an offspring of 
this pair would not 
 seem to have been from last nesting season.

A lengthy interview with an alert, smart and observant neighbor, reported this 
pair has been
there most of the year.  They have more usually been seen in that same tree in 
late afternoon.

Before we were able to establish which of the adults was the male or female, 
one of the mating
birds flew to the limb with the sub-adult bird.  Those two then flew about 50 
feet to another 
tree and perched together for maybe five minutes.  That adult left and flew up 
the South Fork 
embayment.  The second mated bird remained in the tall tree for maybe 20 
minutes.  It flew away 
without our noticing and its destination escaped us.  About 90 minutes of 
systematic searching
did not find either bird.  The sub-adult remained for an extended period.

No nest has been found.

Because the apparent "staging" tree is in such an isolated and large woodlot of 
the ridge, this is a difficult area to search.

Anyone who is birding in that area is asked to report any Bald Eagle activity 
you might observe.

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
[Bristol-Birds] breeding Bald Eagles found on Boone Lake in Sullivan County

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