[tn-bird] Appalachian Trail, Saturday
- From: Charlie <cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2002 05:52:23 -0700 (PDT)
Hi Folks,
Oct 19, 2002
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Appalachian Trail
From 5100 to 6100 feet above sea level
Sevier county, TN and Swain County, NC
On Saturday, Tracey Everson and I led a couple of Florida retirees on
one of their "life goals" up to Charlie's Bunion on the Appalachian
Trail east from Newfound Gap. It's an 8-mile yo-yo hike (4 miles up,
then the same 4 miles back).
Though this was not a birding trip (are you tired of seeing me type
that? The life of a naturalist is soooooo hard (cue violin music))
we did have bins with us, and were hoping for a few high-country
birds. With the recent cold fronts, we figured that a lot of the
altitudinal migrators would already have moved down, but perhaps we'd
run into some truly northern birds. We didn't stumble upon anything
terrific, but it was a decent day bird-wise, and a spectacular day in
all other regards.
While we had no northern finches (and I wouldda bet on siskins or
crossbills) we did have both KINGLETS. Though we feared missing a
RAVEN, one saved the day at the last minute - almost literally within
sight of the parking lot at the end of the return trip. The Juncos
were far less numerous than is typical in summer. Given that we've
had a big influx at Walker Valley (Blount County, 1604 feet above sea
level, but only 15 miles away, due west) I would say that most have
moved down.
At one point near the top of Mt Ambler (half way out, and the highest
elevation reached on this segment) we stopped to spish a bit, and 8-9
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEES were very cooperative. We didn't see any
Carolina chickadees or any titmice on the trip. As is expected, we
flushed one RUFFED GROUSE. I can pretty much count on one for about
every 5 miles hiking above 4500 feet. We also heard a good bit of
drumming, as has been the case throughout the park for the last 2-3
weeks.
A pretty worn-looking female YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER sat to be
viewed for several minutes.
Though we had at least 100 ROBINS eating grape, Mountain Maple and
other berries, only one other thrush was detected, and the brief view
didn't allow us to ID, other than it wasn't a Wood. BLUE JAY numbers
were way down from my last couple times in the high country, so I
suppose most have now moved through. We had perhaps 1 or 2 dozen.
Good day!
=====
**************************************************
Charlie Muise, Senior Naturalist
Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont
Townsend, TN lat 35 deg, 38'23" long 83 deg, 41'22"
"Up, Sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough"
- Ben Frankline, Poor Richard's Almanac
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