BBC Snippets

Link: http://www.freelists.org/archives/bristol-birds/01-2008/msg00097.html

One Great Eared Grebe Moment...

Oct 2, 1994. The rarest bird ever found on a Bristol Bird Club field trip over the club's nearly 60 years of history showed up at the end of a float boat birding trip held at South Holston Lake on the first Sunday of October 1994.

A light sprinkle of rain had begun to fall late in the afternoon with dark clouds diminishing prospects of good birding and discouraging a fun trip. Several birders went on to Friendship Marina not far off U.S. 421. It would not hurt to at least show up and see if the trip had been canceled. After all, BBC member Lloyd Jones had gone to a lot of trouble to ask his brother Jay Jones to make available his float boat and get everything ready for the club. Six birders, including Lloyd Jones, who is not shown above because he was taking the photo, surprised one another by their persistence. The trip was declared a go.

It was fun being together. Another BBC field trip was underway. Rain had not chased the hardy little party home. The sprinkle stopped and birders pushed on up the impoundment north of US 421 bridge, beyond Observation Knob Park, and into Spring Creek not far from Musick's Lakeshore Campground.

Nothing worth writing home about was seen as the boat turned back near the Spring Creek Bridge and Va. Rt. 75.

Reaching the main channel, the boat crossed into Tennessee waters and started its return trip. Suddenly a grebe was seen. Everyone knew instantly it was very different than anything expected. For that matter, different than anything seen on South Holston Lake.

Lloyd Jones was the first to call out Eared Grebe. Of course field guides were out so everyone could get a satisfying comparison. All the birders knew this was really special. It was an excellent bird. None of them had seen one in this region of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

There was one previous record from almost 20 years prior. Dr. Fred Alsop had found a single bird at Patrick Henry Lake in Sullivan Co., April 3, 1977.

There was much excitement among the South Holston group. Everyone knew it was a great, great bird. No one knew how significant this find would turnout.

The motor was shutoff and the birders poised for their historical photo. No one would want to forget this fun find, this great grebe, this magic moment!

Birders far and wide were surprised. It was immediately broadcast over the "Voice of the Naturalist" Rare Bird Alert (RBA) sponsored by the Audubon Naturalist Society of the Central Atlantic States to birders in Maryland, Virginia, Washington D.C. and Delaware. State internet bird lists were not operating in Tennessee or Virginia at that time. We had nothing like Bristol Birds Net. The Wood Thrush Shop at Nashville, TN soon had it up and running on the Tennessee RBA phone recording.

To access such information, birders telephoned long distance to the RBAs and waited until they could get past the busy signal as birders dialed and dialed to get the latest rare bird reports. It was thrilling to hear the South Holston Lake Eared Grebe report coming over the phone with such fanfare.

Birders gathered around the tape player at the very next meeting of the Bristol Bird Club to enjoy hearing the reports being played back from tapes made from the phone. We knew birders from all over were focused on what we had found. The tape recording is in the BBC archives.

All grew quiet on the Eared Grebe scene. But not for long. An almost unbelievable event awaited us just months away.

BBC member Mary Jane Erwin of Kingsport and her friend Gerald Johnson of Birmingham saw another Eared Grebe at the same location one year to the date of the first on Oct. 2, 1995. They did not know the can of worms they were opening. We were all astonished. How amazing was this ? What did this mean ?

Birders swarmed over the area. Five days later Rob Biller and Larry McDaniel found EIGHT there on Oct 7. That was a state record high count ! The next day Judy Musick of Marion, VA and McDaniel discovered the birds in Washington County, VA waters.

Karen Quesenbery, Ramsey White, Ron Carrico, Marty Hubber, Jo Anne Detta, Rick Knight, Frank Ward, Gary Wallace, Larry Routledge, James Brooks and Audrey Hoff of Knoxville were soon among the those flocking to get a look or get a new state bird or new life bird.

In November, the Eared Grebes were still being found and birders were now making trips in from several neighboring states. On the 12th there had been a record NINE found. On that day Bonita Frazier, Mark Frazier, Louise Tilson, Coffey, David Trently of Knoxville, Mark Churchill of Athens, GA, Andy Jones, Carrico and Biller were there to establish the record.

The Washington DC based Voice of the Naturalist was now suggesting that the species would winter there. Local birders were pondering if it would be possible to get an Eared Grebe on the Bristol Christmas Bird Count.

Hmmmm ?

It happened a month later on Dec. 28 with 6 Eared Grebes on the count. Spirits were high ! They were there again this year when Rick Knight saw three on the 2007 count. The grebes have been seen on six of the CBCs since then with the high count being 10 birds in 2005.

But wait ! There's more !

The maximum count at South Holston is 21 Eared Grebes seen Oct 9,1996 at Musick's Campground by Rob Biller, Ron Carrico, Wallace Coffey and Larry McDaniel. That is a state record high count for the species in both Tennessee and Virginia.

Coffey and Chris O'Bryan found two bird 31 Aug 2004 at Musick's Campground, representing the earliest fall record. McDaniel and Coffey saw a bird in full breeding plumage at South Holston in May.

Eared Grebes have awaited birders at Musick's Campground every year for 14 consecutive winters since 1994. How long does this continue ?

Archives of the Bristol Bird Club.