BBC Snippets

CORRECTION NOTE: Historical Snippet - June 15-20,1936

In reviewing records from the 1936 field party jamboree held by TOS on Roan Mountain, today, I began to notice that several of the dates in the species accounts were for a period outside the time span reported by Albert F. Ganier.

It turns out that Ganier evidently listed the wrong dates for the jamboree at Roan Mountain. Shortly after returning to Nashville, he published a short note in THE MIGRANT reporting they had visited Roan Mnt. June 22-27 (CORRECT). Below is the reference and a reproduction of the date he listed in that September 1936 issue of the state journal.

After looking at the various reports and considering the dates for species seen and nests found, it appears that the accurate date for this event was:

Monday June 22-Saturday June 27, 1936 (CORRECT DATE)

Monday thru Saturday June 22-27, 1936 (CORRECT DATE) reported by Ganier, THE MIGRANT, Vol 7, No. 3, pp 75

In the December issue of the journal he wrote the report and results of the visit to Roan Mountain for the journal. Here he listed the dates as June 15-20

THE MIGRANT Vol. 7, No. 4, pp 84, 1936. June 15-20, 1936 (INCORRECT) Ganier


In December 1936, Bruce Tyler and Bob Lyle prepared a notebook about the event and distributed one to each of the party members. The date on the front listed June 23-28 (INCORRECT)

June 23-28, 1936 (INCORRECT) Tyler & Lyle Tuesday thru Sunday

Duck Hawk (Peregrine Falcon) June 22 and June 24
Northern Raven June 25
Red-breasted Nuthatch nest June 23
Eastern Winter Wren June 25
Eastern Robin June 22
Eastern Bluebird June 25
Cedar Waxwing June 25
Mountain Vireo June 22
Chestnut-sided Warbler
June 22 Canada Warbler
June 25 Mississippi
Song Sparrow June 22

I regret not having detected these errors earlier.

Let's go birding......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN

A group of Tennessee birders, participating in a Tennessee Ornithological Society summer jamboree, June 15-20,1936, at Roan Mountain is likely the first state TOS activity held in Northeast Tennessee.

Bruce P. Tyler of Johnson City had been elected President of TOS and was helping host birders from across the state, along with his birding companion, Bob B. Lyle, also of Johnson City.


The party consisted of Mr. and Mrs. John Bamberg, F. S. Carpenter, Alfred Clebach, Jr., Dr. Cynthis C. Counce, George Davis, Amy Deane, Albert F. Ganier, Robert B. Lyle, Evelyn Schneider, Mable Slack and Bruce P. Tyler. This photo, posed with an old beech, is only part of the group and the only person identified is Albert F. Gainer (wearing a tie).

Roan Mountain contains some of the most unique flora and fauna in the eastern United States. Much national attention has been directed to identifying and classifying these unique features as well as being recognized for its outstanding scenic qualities of high mountain balds, rhododendron gardens, and spruce-fir timber types. It contains more than 300 species of plants, some rare and endangered, and wildlife, some at their northern and southern limits. A yellow birch tree (Betula alleghaniensis) found in the hardwood forest was determined to be 385 years old.

Despite the fact there had been notable naturalist on Roan Mountain in the 1800s and early 1900s, TOS took note of the lack of specific information about distribution by elevation and sometimes almost nothing about whether birds were seen in the vicinity of Roan Mountain or on the mountain itself.

The group stayed in a lodge located at what was then called Toll House Gap near the site of the former Cloudland Hotel (6150 ft.); the lodge was at 6100 ft. The gap is located along the road from Carver's Gap up to the gardens and is where the first large parking lot is on the right as you get most of the way to the top.

Sketch of lodge by Lyle & Tyler

The mountain, from about 5000 ft. upward, is of the Canadian type in its fauna and flora. This was particularly evidenced by the presence, from Roan High Bluff to Roan High Knob, of an almost unbroken line, at or near the summits, of balsam fir and red spruce. The once splendid forests of fir and spruce had been cut out, nearly to the tops, thus damaging the scenic aspects and perhaps altering the bird life.

Albert F. Ganier of Nashville was the leader of the TOS group. He became known as the "Dean of Tennessee Ornithology" in the years to come. His first published paper was in 1899. He was one of five founders of the state society. In 1926 he was president of the Tennessee Academy of Science and was a past president of the famous Wilson Ornithological Society. He led the party to the very high elevation of Roan (6313 ft.) which is unsurpassed in the eastern United States, except for a few peaks in the Mount Mitchell group and in the Great Smokies.

The party of twelve bird students from TOS had as their purpose to make as complete a list as possible of the breeding birds to be found about the summits. They confined their observations to the area lying above the 5000 foot contour, which generally embraced the Canadian type habitat. They found a total of 32 species but doubtless a few others were not seen.

In the mid-1930s, Tyler was playing a very active role in TOS. He was the East Tennessee regional editor for THE MIGRANT, the state journal of ornithology. He was participating in TOS activities. Tyler had become a very good friend with Ganier and the two were beginning to focus on various aspects of the birdlife of Northeast Tennessee. He was also leading an annual Christmas Bird Count at Johnson City.

In the photo at the left, Tyler is shown doing daily chores at the ranger cabin which had been built along with a fire tower in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps program. The window at the top is a loft which had a ladder leading to another area which could be used for sleeping quarters. Below is a photo of the same cabin today. It is at the summit of Roan High Knob. The cabin was renovated in 1980 and now serves as the Roan High Knob Shelter of the Appalachian Trail. At 6285 ft.elevation it is the highest shelter on the AT. It sleeps 16 and it the largest shelter on the famous trail.

Look at the difference in forest growth about the cabin site since the photo above was made in June 1936. This alone gives us a different perspective about what the habitat was like in some areas of Roan Mountain then and today. It had been heavily cut over.

One of the prize discoveries in June 1936 was the nest of a RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH. It was found by John Bamberg on June 23, at 5900 ft., containing 5 nearly fresh eggs. It was built 9 feet above the ground and a foot below the top of a dead spruce stub 12 in. in diameter, on a cut-over slope. The tree was punky and the wood soft, so the nuthatch had excavated its own characteristic hole to a depth of 9 inches. As usual with this species, a small amount of gum had been brought and applied to the exterior about the entrance. A scanty pad of soft inner fibers of bark was beneath the eggs. The bird flushed readily when the tree was pounded on but later became harder to evict as a series of photos were being taken. A new nest cavity, partly finished, was found in the dead top of a small buckeye at Big Meadow and in a nearby spruce, old birds were watched at 10 feet, feeding young as large as themselves. By this it would seem that there was an early season nesting as with the White-breasted Nuthatch, Ganier concluded in his report.

Other species of interest included:

Duck. HAWK (PEREGRINE FALCON).—One flew low over the "Rhododendron Gardens" on June 22, with prey in its talons. A "Peregrine" was also observed around Roan High Point, by Tyler, on June 24. The cliffs at the High Bluff, which Ganier wrote " that he lacked time to examine closely," seemed well adapted to an eyrie, he thought.

PRAIRIE HORNED LARK —A pair and a young bird on the wing, were observed by "all of us on the summit of Little Roan (5800 ft.) just s.w. of Carver’s Gap." It was an extensive nearly bald summit; the grass on top was short and therefore suitable for this short-legged, ground walking bird. The presence of this species there, when it was doubtless nesting, was of particular interest. Tyler and Lyle had previously reported it there, on June 30, 1935.

NORTHERN RAVEN — Ganier considered this as perhaps the highlight of the trip when the sight of a flock of 7 or 8 of these birds were seen June 25, flying leisurely westward along the north side of Little Roan [evidently Round Bald as we know it today].They saw or heard one or more Ravens each day of their visit and at all points on the mountain.

VEERY.—Fairly common in the fir belt and down the slopes into the deciduous forest. In the edge of the latter, at Big Meadow (5500 ft.) a nest was found on June 24, with 3 early fresh eggs. It was built 2 feet above the ground in one of a patch of small beech sprouts in thick woods. The bulky nest was built on a foundation of beech leaves and was principally of weed stems and fibers. An old nest was found nearby on a low limb of a small spruce.

The TOS birding party at The Big Meadow (5200-5700 ft.)

ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK —A male observed singing on the south side of Little Roan, near top at elev. 5700 ft., in deciduous growth.

EASTERN VESPER SPARROW -- Ganier was pleased, and a little surprised, to find one of these birds feeding on the grassy bald summit of Little Roan at elev. 5700 ft. It probably had a nest in the vicinity for conditions there were quite suitable, he wrote.

from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club and the pages of THE MIGRANT Photos from the Bob Lyle Collection left to Wallace Coffey.

Of the nocturnal raptor possibilities in our region, few are more intriguing than a handful of fascinating encounters with Long-eared Owls during the breeding season months.

Most amazing is Fred M. Jones' find of a nest in what we believe is the general vicinity of Musick's Campground long before South Holston Lake existed. The nest was found in Washington Co., VA. The nest was known to be active May 9-20, 1932.

Two records will make you lay awake at night to toss and turn. Two birds were heard calling near the summit of Beartown Mountain in Russell County on June 21, 1974 by Dick Peake, Bill Opengari and others during the Mount Rogers VSO Foray. Another was found at Beartree Campground just off US 58 north of Damascus in Washington County the next day on June 22, 1974 by Sarah Cromer and Peake.

Long-eared Owl photographed in Kentucky by Richard Kretz of Lebanon, VA

The following articles, written by Fred M. Jones, is his accounts of finding a Long-eared Owl nest in Holston Valley, along the Virginia and Tennessee line. Research of his birding activities has revealed that at the time of this encounter with the nest, Jones lived 2.9 miles SE of what is today Musick's Campground at South Holston Lake. It was nearly 20 years until the lake would be impounded. Jones lived in Bristol, Va., at least early in 1932 and bought land Jan 15, 1932 on Jacob's Creek and was known to live in a house which today has the address of 781 Denton Valley Rd. The address is in sight of where you turn to drive out to Jacobs Creek Campground of the U.S. Forest Service near the Job Crops.

Consider that Long-eared Owls are not known to nest in Tennessee and you can probably count on one hand every breeding record in Virginia.

Many in the North American ornithological community are still amazed at Jones' discovery of a nearly equal number of mammal (45) remains and bird (46) remains discovered in the Long-eared Owl pellets. The Long-eared is one that frequently has 90+ percent small mammals in its diets. At least the science community believes the high number of birds reflects the season and particular situation. One author wrote that in modern times much of what is known about some of the prey species in the diet of the Long-eared Owl reflects what Jones produced from the "Holston Valley" nest findings.

Long-eared Owl (Asio wilsonianus) Nesting near Bristol, Va.-- Long-eared Owl (Asio wilsonianus) May 25, 1932, Washington Co., Va., near the Tennessee line. Nest made of green-brier roots 36 feet up in a white pine tree which was in a small grove composed of white pines and Jersey pine (Pinus virginiana). The six young Owls had only recently left the nest as some were still found in the nesting tree along with the two old ones, and in the nest were two freshly killed moles and one meadow mouse. From the ground below I collected a quart of disgorged pellets. The young Owls were about as large as the old ones and were able to fly very well. The one I have now in captivity was caught with some difficulty. That the Owls built the nest themselves is based on the statement of the land owner who informed me that he had dislodged a crow’s nest from this tree the autumn before, removing every portion of the nest. He also advised that the Owls had nested in this grove or near-by for the past twenty-five years to his knowledge.— F. M. Jones, Bristol, Va.

That a pair of Long-eared Owls could break up a revival meeting seems more like a "fish story," but from a reliable sources this seems to be true. As the story goes, about twenty years ago this pair of Owls selected a small pine grove in Holston Valley through which the Virginia and Tennessee line ran as their new home, and at the time of their arrival a big revival meeting was going on in that locality. When the good folks going home after ‘the services in the small hours of the night heard strange mysterious sounds which could not be accounted for, they began to wonder just what it could be making the unusual noises. Some of a superstitious nature decided that home was safer for them after dark and rather than to take any chances they were not among those present with the church-going people any more. The contagion soon spread until the congregation once large at the nightly meetings, dwindled away to only a few of the more faithful, until finally one night the preacher himself failed to show up, and thus the revival came to an abrupt end.

My attention was attracted to this small family of Owls a few years ago when a boy brought me a pair of the old birds which he had killed that day. I went with him out to the place the next morning to investigate the situation and try to catch a few of the young Owls. They are not common to that section so I was particularly interested in them. Four of the young Owls had departed during the night, seeking new fields of endeavor but we finally located the two left which were sitting near the top of a white pine tree. After stopping all of the plowing in the neighborhood and enlisting the services of the friendly farmers to help us we eventually caught the two Owls which were as large as the old ones and could fly very good. Under the nesting tree I collected about a quart of the disgorged pellets which I later sent to the Biological Survey for an analysis. In due course of time the report was received and it certainly did disclose quite a variety of birds and mammals which the Owls had eaten. It was not as easy as all that however, for only the scientific names were listed and in my case they must have taken a lot for granted, and before I could tell just what the Owls’ menu was, I had to do some research work myself. The list follows: Scarlet Tanager, 3; Catbird, 2; House Wren, 2; Yellow-breasted Chat, 1; Song Sparrow, 1; Blackburnian Warbler, 1; Ovenbird, 2; Redstart, 2; Yellow-billed Cuckoo, 2; Red-bellied Woodpecker, 2; Chipping Sparrow, 1; Brown Thrasher, 1; Cardinal, 1; Maryland Yellow-throat; 1; Bluebird, 1; Crow, 1; White-throated Sparrow, 1; Fragments of Warblers, 9, and Passerine birds, 12. Seventeen identified birds and 46 individuals. Now for the mammals: Pine mouse, 5; harvest mouse, 5; house mouse, 9; white-footed mouse, 3; Cooper’s Lemming mouse, 4; meadow mouse, 4; short-tailed shrew, 13; rabbit, 2. Total of 45 individuals. Looking at the above tabulation it might seem as if the Owls were doing about as much harm as good.

Before passing judgment on the Owls there are a number of things which must be taken in consideration. In particular it might be well to keep in mind that during the trying period of raising such a large family to maturity and satisfying their ever increasing appetites, the old Owls had to get all the food available without having any option of choosing between mice and birds. Normally mice and rats is their principal food and there is no denying the fact that they do a tremendous lot of good, and the fact that they do catch birds during the time of caring for their young, the good they do at other times more than offsets their faults. Confirming this opinion, the two young Owls which I kept for several months would invariably eat the mice first if given both mice and English Sparrows or Starlings, and should there be sufficient mice to satisfy their appeties(sic), they would not eat the birds at all.

F. M. Jones, Harrisonburg, Va.

from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club