Birding in East Tennessee

First I want to apologize for missing the compilation Sunday afternoon for the Lee and Lois Herndon TOS breeding bird summer count. Being caught in a Thunder / Hail Storm while on the Appalachian Trail between Carver's Gap and the Rhododendron Gardens will tend to cause a delay. As the hail was stinging of the back of my neck (as I had no type of rain protection) I knew I wasn't going to make it. I arrived back at my car at Carver's Gap at 2:15, which was too late to even try. Again my apologizes.

I stayed on Roan Mt Friday (June 17) night so I decided to go and check for Saw-whet Owls Friday night / Early Saturday morning. At 11:40pm (Friday) I got a single SAW-WHET OWL to respond to my whistling from the Carver's Gap parking area. This bird was in the general vicinity of the nest box structure off the main road leading up to the rhododendron gardens. I never saw the bird but that is where the sound was coming from. I decided to hang around until 12:01am (Saturday June 18) to officially count this bird before heading back to the house in Burbank where I was staying.

By 5:00, I was again back at Carver's Gap listening to the same Saw-whet Owl (at least this was from the same direction). I found it interesting that before it was really light on top of the mountain, 3 ALDER FLYCATCHERS were singing from their perches deep within the blankets of Alders in the Carver's Gap area. So now I am thinking at that before 6am I have had two pretty rare species for our area and how this could shape up to be a really good day.

Near 6am I walk up the main road for just a little bit where I hear a bird sing with 2 distinct notes at the beginning then sounding like a tired Winter Wren. What I mean is it was bubbling over itself like a Winter Wren does but just not as excited about it. I immediately think RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET (especially with the 2 distinct high notes at the beginning). Try as I might, I was not able to get a visual identification. I include it on this list because Nora Schubert, Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy's Seasonal Ecologist, described the exact same song as I described (and again with no visual).."two distinct high notes before and the rest just not like a Winter Wren." I will let the powers that be decide whether or not that is enough evidence, but I think that is what it was.

I had decided that from between 6 and 9am I would scramble to as many places on Roan Mt as possible. I did this with the hopes of getting as many birds singing as possible while keeping good records to what I had where as not to count the birds twice upon my return visit.

By 9am I was back at Carver's Gap to sample more high elevation birds (where I saw one of the Alder Flycatchers singing from an Alder branch between the parking areas). I walked with the group from SAHC (led by Nora Schubert) part of the way up the Appalachian Trail heading toward the Rhododendron Gardens. Here we sample Golden-crowned Kinglet, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Winter Wrens, and Veerys.

From here I blanket Roan Mt from top to bottom; hitting all the good spots I know about and get a fair share of more birds to add. Around 11am I turn up to the Miller's Homestead and walk out the trail past the overlook platform. I had high hopes to get a certain bird here and was not disappointed as I heard a YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKER call and peck from his tree to the west of the trail.

The rest of the day was spent skirting the bottom of the mountain, the town of Roan Mtn (where I did find the elusive Northern Mockingbird, but NO Killdeer), and a lengthly afternoon trip to Ripshin Lake Area (where I had to wait out a 35-40 minute downpour). At 6pm and after 13 hours in the field, I called it quits with 80 species of birds. Big misses were both Vultures, Broad-winged Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Killdeer, Rock Dove, Screech Owl, Louisiana Waterthrush, and both Orioles. The complete list follows:

Rack Cross was doing his point count for the Tennessee State Ornithologist in the Hampton Creek Cove area and his count has been added to this FINAL list. It is signifigant to note that Rack added another 2 species to the count (at least for my area) - Northern Bobwhite and Cedar Waxwings! This ups my area to 82 species. Thanks Rack!!

The complete list:

Start Temp 45F (at Carver's Gap)
End Temp 75F
Total Mileage 127
Owling Miles 20
Birding Miles 107
Owling time 1.5 hours
Birding time 11.5 hours
Total Birding Time 13 hours

Birding Party - Rob Biller with help from Rack Cross, Mike Poe, and Nora Schubert

Canada Goose (Ripshin area) 10
Northern Bobwhite 2 (Rack Cross)
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Mourning Dove 40
Great Horned Owl 1
Barred Owl 1
Northern Saw-whet Owl 1
Chimney Swift 3
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 6
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Miller Homestead) 1
Downy Woodpecker 3
Hairy Woodpecker 4
Northern Flicker 1
Pileated Woodpecker 4
Eastern Wood-Pewee 4
Acadian Flycatcher 2
Alder Flycatcher 3
Willow Flycatcher 2
Least Flycatcher 15
Eastern Phoebe 6
Eastern Kingbird 2
White-eyed Vireo 1
Blue-headed Vireo 6
Red-eyed Vireo 12
Blue Jay 17
American Crow 62
Common Raven 1
Tree Swallow 6
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 2
Barn Swallow 6
Carolina Chickadee 4
Tufted Titmouse 4
Red-breasted Nuthatch 3
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Carolina Wren 1
House Wren 9
Winter Wren 4
Golden-crowned Kinglet 11
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Eastern Bluebird 5
Veery 9
Hermit Thrush 1 (Mike Poe and Rob Biller) [can't count the one in NC!]
Wood Thrush 6
American Robin 106
Gray Catbird 12
Northern Mockingbird 3
Brown Thrasher 2
Cedar Waxwing 18
European Starling 11
Golden-wingeed Warbler 3
Northern Parula 1
Yellow Warbler 10
Chestnut-sided Warbler 21
Black-throated Blue Warbler 13
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1 (Nora Schubert)
Black-throated Green Warbler 5
Black-&-White Warbler 1
American Redstart 3
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Ovenbird 7
Common Yellowthroat 8
Hooded Warbler 5
Canada Warbler 4
Yellow-breasted Chat 3
Scarlet Tanager 6
Eastern Towhee 29
Chipping Sparrow 12
Field Sparrow 19
Song Sparrow 38
Dark-eyed Junco 43
Northen Cardinal 3
Indigo Bunting 19
Red-winged Blackbird 43
Eastern Meadowlark 1
Common Grackle 14
Brown-headed Cowbird 5
House Finch 6
Pine Siskin 2
American Goldfinch 15
House Sparrow 1