[Bristol-Birds] Re: turkeys & harriers - Washington Co, TN
- From: Don Miller <raincrow@xxxxxxx>
- To: Bristol-Birds <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2005 09:04:15 -0500
Wallace and Rick,
I'm very pleased to see your postings on harriers in northeast Tennessee. This
is a species that I follow with interest, and I have recorded some noteworthy
numbers over the last eight years or so, but only in Greene County. I consider
myself lucky to find one or two harriers per day on my jaunts into Washington
and Sullivan Counties, but the bird is easy to find in western Greene County,
particularly in the vicinity of Joachime Bible Refuge unit of Lick Creek Bottoms
Wildlife Management Area (JBR), located on South Mohawk Road between Bible's
Chapel Road and Murray Bridge Road.
Here's a list of some memorable harrier days I had at JBR in the late 90's:
January 3, 1997 (8);
December 7, 1997 (9);
December 20, 1997 (15--my single-site high count);
December 30, 1997 (12);
January 2, 1998 (10);
November 21, 1998 (14);
January 16, 1999 (12).
I haven't targeted JBR for high harrier numbers in recent years, but I nearly
always see at least 3 or more there if I hang around even for a few minutes in
late afternoon or at dusk. On December 12, 2003, I also saw 8 at a Lick Creek
Bottoms WMA site nearby.
Don Miller
Greeneville, TN
Wallace Coffey wrote:
> Rick Knight and Area Birders:
>
> The Hales Chapel Rd. continues to produce good turkey numbers. This is the
> same vicinity and road where Larry McDaniel and Rob Biller had 107 on 7 Feb
> 2004 --- almost one year to the day.
>
> The maxium number of Northern Harriers I am aware of for the region was 10
> in Hawkins County nearly 25 years ago. On Dec. 12,1980, Tom Laughlin and
> Rick Phillips found a roost of birds concentrated on a one-acre site near
> the Surgoinsville Airport. They returned to the spot two days later (Dec.
> 14) and collected 100 pellets during 30 minutes of searching. Laughlin was
> going to analyze them for prey content. I saw a large bag of the pellets
> and it was impressive.
>
> The habitat consisited of approximately 40 acres of rolling upland terrain
> vegitated chief by broomsedge. It was crossed by several barbed wire fences
> and bordered on the north, east and west chiefly by wooded areas. The
> airport was on the south edge. It was being subdivided.
>
> On 14 April (just before 5 p.m.) they trapped and banded a male Northern
> Harrier at this location.
>
> A week later (21 Dec) Laughlin and Phillips took me to the site. I wanted
> to see the habitat. They had captured a Rough-legged Hawk and two Northern
> Harriers at this location in the three years prior to banding there. Those
> birds were taken to Bays Mountain Park for Fred Alsop to get photographs.
>
> While at the site on 21 Dec 1980, I estimated 8 to 10 birds (at least two
> males and 6 females/immatures). I was shown a couple of "butcher block"
> feeding posts which, from prey remains, had been heavily used.
>
> It was interesting that there was much chasing going on between the birds.
> That included one bird driving two others from the ground and into the air.
> Males were challenged from their fence post perches by larger females. On
> Dec. 14, Laughlin and Phillips saw an adult male knock a dark harrier to the
> ground. Watching for such behavior may be an indication of a roost.
>
> Surely your find of 8 birds at Bowmantown on Thursday is the maximum for the
> species in the five-county Northeast Tennessee area.
>
> That is one great find ! Thanks for the neat report.
>
> Let's go birding....
>
> Wallace Coffey
> Bristol
>
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*************************************************
BRISTOL BIRDS NET LIST
Bristol Birds Net Photo Gallery located at:
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jwcoffeyy/album?.dir=/efd5
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.
--------------------------------------------------
You are subscribed to Bristol-Birds.
To post to this mailing list, simply send an email
to: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send
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Wallace Coffey, Moderator
wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
(423)764-****
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