Made it up to Burke's Garden in Tazwell County, Virginia last Saturday.  The day was drizzly and the high elevation valley was very foggy and, as we left, completely socked in with thick clouds.  Before it totally was enveloped by the clouds we did see at least one specialty bird of the valley.  Although we didn't see a Golden Eagle, we did find a Rough-legged Hawk "kiting" like a Kestrel.  To see such a big hawk hovering in one place, no matter how far away (because it was pretty far even for binoculars), is always an amazing feat.  It was just hovering there in mid air, keeping it stationary by its mighty wings searching for prey.  That was until a group of Crows found it and it flew farther away across the great field it was hunting in.  Other good birds we found were Rusty Blackbirds, Brown Creeper, Green-winged Teal, and Red-tailed Hawks, Wild Turkeys (just outside the valley proper), and other common bird sightings.  Good day with Tom McNeil and his son, JT.

I have decided to only do 4 Christmas Counts this year.

The Elizabethton CBC and the Roan Mountain CBC are over and they were good. We had some average numbers for winter birds in this area with a few good species as well.

Tom McNeil and myself had a Catbird (which is a great sighting for December in East Tennessee) along the Linear River Park trail in Elizabethton. This is the second year (maybe 3rd) in a row that the count has found them in December. This bird usually moves south to along the coastal areas of the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic Coast. Also they go down into Florida and points farther south.

Also, another party had a Horned Lark which is rare for the Elizabethton CBC as the habitat doesn't seem quite as habitable in Carter County as is does in western Washington County. It does seem that this species should appear more though in this count.

The Roan Mountain Count was average enough with Rick Knight's party getting the high elevation specialties such as the Red-breasted Nuthatches and the Pine Siskins. I was with leader Tom McNeil and Bill Grigsby at the Ripshin Lake area where we had a pretty good day with a Wood Duck, Buffleheads, and Black Ducks on the lake; Red-breasted Nuthatches, Fox Sparrow, and the other usual sparrows along the road by Ripshin Lake. Also, we had a Pied-billed Grebe on Miller Lake (a smaller lake just down from Ripshin). We also had 5 Ravens over the graveyard where we started the day before light owling where we could only get a Screech Owl. The rest of the species that day were pretty average which made it another nice average day with a few major misses.

Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures were the two big misses for both count areas I went on. Also, Killdeer was another miss that I usually see every day while out (at least hear!).

Still - two pretty good days and two more to go over New Year's Holiday.

Whew!

It's been quite a while since I last made a post. Since the time between the last post (which welcomes everyone to the new look of this blog) and this post, the site to which this blog is attached to was hacked and the whole compound. Compound of Technobohemia.net, a Johnson City based web site that incorporates a lot of East Tennessee Culture, History, locally made videos and even a radio program or two etc, but I happily digress. Oh, did I mention that a good guy runs it? A real good guy. He keeps me in the birding blog business every time there is trouble...

I don't think I am going to try and catch up all that has happened between the last post and this one (except for maybe a few things), but use this as a re-jumping off post.

To conclude this one, I am going to mention a few upcoming birding opportunities...

Dec 16 - Elizabethton Christmas Bird Count (CBC) - contact Rick Knight
Dec 17 - Roan Mountain CBC - Contact Rick Knight in Johnson City
Dec 30 - Glade Spring, VA CBC - Contact Ron Harrington - in Bristol VA
Dec 31 - Bristol CBC - Contact Richard Lewis - in Bristol, TN
Jan 1 - Shady Valley_Mountain City, TN CBC - Contact me (comment section of this blog is fine).

These are Christmas Birds counts that date back for over 100 years now that Audubon sponsors. More can be found about these counts by going to www.audubon.net.

Results from all these East Tennessee / SW Virginia counts will be found here as they unfold.