BBC Snippets

Link: http://www.freelists.org/archives/bristol-birds/02-2008/msg00104.html

As the New Year's was about to ring in for 1993, the Bristol Bird Club was stretching its wings and fluttering further away for club outings and field trips.

Darkness had fallen over the little community of Manteo on Roanoke Island, NC, hiding just behind the barrier island outer banks of the Atlantic Ocean.

One by one cars arrived from Northeast Tennessee to begin the club's celebration advertised as "New Year's at the Outer Banks." The grand plan called for BBC members to drive to this destination on their own. As soon as everyone arrived it was time to let the fun begin.

Birders established their New Year's Eve base at the Elizabethan Inn just six miles from the northern tip of Bodie Island.

Seven BBC members showed up for the club's much-anticipated New Year's Eve party. Arthur Smith, Rick Knight, Wallace Coffey, Mary Erwin, Mike Evans and Mary Evans greeted one another at the inn. John Shumate was signed up for the trip but cancelled the night before leaving.

A few blocks away the party found dinner at a small seafood restaurant.

Back at the inn, all clocks were temporarily set to a time zone somewhere out in the Atlantic. This moved the New Year's midnight minute much closer so the group could celebrate and still be in bed early enough to get a pre-dawn start on Jan. 1.

Mary Erwin surprised the group with a great soft pack (or wine cask)to help celebrate. Table tops were covered with tins of cookies and the likes. As the clock struck midnight "birder time" the BBC held its first of many future fireworks shows in the parking lot. Everyone was fully expecting either an irate management or the heavy hand of the law. Neither showed up and the popping and cracking and banging went on as long as nerves would allow.

Happy New Year's BBC !

In the twilight of a morning dawn, the group sat on the Atlantic beach waiting for the sun to peak over the horizon. As the flames of sunrise spread warmth over the island, birders bask in the first light of a new year and the first birds of the day were closely focused.



A great birding experience was underway -- three days of birding with the BBC at the Outer Banks !

Rick Knight, who today ranks about 14th on the all time life list numbers of North Carolina birders with somewhere in the neighborhood of 368 species, provided the BBC leadership. In 1993 he had birded there on nearly a dozen trips. Rick knew special places and birds expected.

His plan called for the group to bird Pea Island to include the Oregon Inlet area and then on to Buxton where the party had reservations at the Comfort Inn.

North Pond at the Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge was a sight to behold. Birders were everywhere and the BBC group had to hunt a parking space out on the highway and walk in. Amazingly there were dozens of teenagers and college students birding in groups and carrying scopes. Young people birding in their own small groups was not a familiar scene back home in the mountain.

That first day included thousands of Snow Geese. A Western Kingbird was discovered by Rick. Tundra Swans were abundant and Rick found the Eurasian Wigeon which had been noted on the species report list left nearby in a rack at the refuge station.

Buxton is a neat place at Cape Hatteras on the south tip of Hatteras Island. The group had to double back north to find a restaurant for dinner. Stores and service stations were beginning to close for the remainder of the winter. The BBC group was sneaking just a step ahead and in just in nick of time to find resources.

The next morning (Jan. 2) turned up Black-and-white Warbler and then an Orange-crowned Warbler.

And so it went......

Now, 35 miles off the mainland on the narrow strip of islands which are famous for their wintering waterfowl, BBC pushed on. A nice hike over a long and deep sandy stretch to see birds at the edge of the ocean was some workout.

The Outer Banks provided a list of 84 species despite the fact some of the better and expected species could not be found. The list included Tundra Swans (1500) and Snow Geese (1500 whites) to lead the waterfowl parade which featured many ducks.

Other fun birds along the way included many Red-throated Loons, a thousand cormorants, Northern Gannet, White Ibis, Snow Goose (blue), Merlin, Peregrine, Virginia Rail, American Oystercatcher, Red Knot, Ruddy Turnstone, Gray Catbird and thousands of Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Rick did a masterful job. Not only was he a veteran birder of the area but he had been with the Carolina Bird Club's Nov. 28-29 winter trip to Pea Island and was able to not only scout the birds but also good locations for us to bird as well as lodging and meals.

The North Carolina state operated ferry system provided the continuous access as birders moved further south. This is one of the nation's largest such systems and provides passage over five routes between communities.

BBC birders took the first and free ferry crossing from the cape at Hetaeras to Ocracoke in 45 minutes. With no advanced hotel reservations, the group found lodging and settled in for the night. The hotel was beginning to breakdown its normal operations because the inn would close the next morning. The BBC group ate in the dining room and ordered whatever was left in the kitchen and found themselves grateful.

In the early hours just before dawn, birders encountered a U.S. Marshal searching in the back of a SUV in the parking lot. Bravely, they approached. He looked up with a smile as he found his spotting scope under a birding jacket.

He was from Knoxville and was hunting a few "wanted" life listers during an early vacation. It is not often you see a sweatshirt with U.S Marshall or whatever it says across the back.

Judy Roach and Mary Erwin kept the food flowing in the field. On Jan. 1 they served a great lunch from their van parked at the Coast Guard Station. The last day (Jan. 3)the birds ate breakfast before dawn in the waiting lanes at the Cedar Island Ferry. There were no reservations and you had to get there early. When Rick Knight says early that means EARLY -- before daylight. The ferry left at 7 a.m. The BBC cars were well up front.

Crossing time was two and one-half hours to the mainland at Cedar Point. It was well worth the $10 shelled out per vehicle. Birders gathered on the deck and watched continuously as they rode through open waters that seemed to have more cormorants than whitecaps waves. It was a cold head wind.

What a wonderful trip. Everyone seemed so happy and the group soon departed and headed home over their chosen routes and on their own schedule.

More is to come in 2008. BBC Vice-President John Moyle, who schedules and leads field trips for the club, has another trip to this birding paradise at the Outer Banks set for the weekend of Nov 21-24, 2008. Mark your calendars.

from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club

Link: http://www.freelists.org/archives/bristol-birds/02-2008/msg00010.html

March 6, 1938 Among the special egg sets in the East Tennessee State University Biology Department's specimen collections is what modern day birders and ornithologists believe may be the last documented nesting of the Peregrine Falcon (Duck Hawk of old) in Northeast Tennessee or Southwest Virginia.

The eggs are known as the Robert B. Lyle collection, given to ETSU in the early '70s by the Johnson City resident who collected them over a 40-year period when collecting eggs was a hobby among some naturalist.

Lyle (1888-1971), in his years of failing health, had become a close friend of Wallace Coffey who often visited with him in his home and corresponded with him while in a VA hospital in North Carolina. The two spent many days and long hours talking about egg collecting, localities and birding records of the region.

Coffey had a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service scientific collecting permit for birds, eggs and such. He also held state permits for Tennessee and Virginia. Since Coffey was the only person in the region, outside of a university or qualified museum, who could legally take and possess the eggs. Lyle gave the collection to Coffey on a promise that it would eventually be moved to a teaching collection somewhere in the region.

Coffey's inventory of the collection found it contained 2,776 eggs in 641 clutches (egg sets) contained in 566 boxes. A 1972 inventory by Dr. Jerry Nagel reported 3,092 eggs in 637 clutches, representing 392 species.

In addition, Lyle gave Coffey many color slides of birds, photo albums of bird's nest and eggs and, at his death, left him his personal nature library.

The now famous photo of the Peregrine nest is only owned as copies by a handful of people who have prints given in honor of their contribution to regional ornithology and bird study.


One original is known to exist. The 8X10 was given to Rick Knight for his work with area bird records and his hacking of Peregrines, both at Roan Mountain and in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Coffey owns what appears to be a 4X5 and a 5X7 copy of the original which has the personal notes made by Lyle both on the face and on the back of the black and white print.

Lyle, and his birding companion, Bruce P. Tyler (1874-1975) of Johnson City, are believed to be the first bird photographers in the Mountain Empire Region.

Also among Lyle's photo collection is one of the great Devil's Looking Glass on the Nolichucky River just downstream from the I-26 bridge at Erwin in Unicoi County, TN.


His ink notes on the back say:

"nesting site of Duck Hawk 'Devil's Looking Glass' Unicoi Co., Tennessee" The same information appears at the bottom of the photo on the front. This photo was pasted in an album of his bird pictures and he may have added that information on the front so it could be seen. However, the ink notes on the back are still in good shape and very clear after having been removed from the pages. A second photo is looking down on the nest.

In this second photo two people can be seen below. Both of these pictures appear to have been made the same day or same season.


Some of the details on the back have been damaged from removing this print from the album. It apparently says that this is a photo looking down from above the nest but words which are clear and easily read:

".....river from 'Devils Looking Glass' directly above nest of Duck Hawk"

Lyle told Coffey (Bristol Herald Courier, Mar 7, 1971, p 8 that he well remembered the Slaughter's Bluff nest in of March 6, 1938, on the South Fork Holston River in Sullivan Co.

"It was a beautiful day and it had been cold just like in the past few days and the snow had melted," he remembered. "We had discovered the nest by throwing pebbles over a ledge where we thought she had her nest and the falcon flew out. It was about ten or 12 feet down and I went over on a rope ladder. There I found a nest depression scratched out in the dirt and the eggs were beautiful. They were cream colored and had specks all over them that gave an almost brick red color. There was a rock overhang that practically covered the nest to protect the eggs. The ground wasn't sandy but more like clay where the depression was made."

Lyle went on to explain that "these were the last eggs and the last nest ever found in the region as far as I know."

While Coffey has not found a location on maps of a locality called Slaughter's Bluff in Sullivan Co., he did learn from Lyle that the nest was in the cliff face where Patrick Henry Lake is today. It is now known as Dorn's Bluff. That cliff face is south facing and just upstream from the I-81 bridge over the S.F. Holston River ( Patrick Henry Lake). He also collected eggs of the Black Vulture from holes in that cliff.

In The Migrant for June 1933, F. M. Jones, describes two nests examined by himself and R. B. Lyle, the finder, near Johnson City, Tenn. B. P. Tyler of that city, wrote to Albert F. Ganier that "a third pair has been located on Roan Mountain." The Peregrines were nesting all through the North Carolina mountains and Sprunt and Murray, in The Auk (1930, p. 563) recorded seven of them on August 1, 1930, from the top of Grandfather Mountain, Avery Co., North Carolina.

Jones wrote in the December, 1933, The Migrant, page 43, that pairs are known in the Johnson City area and "have been visited by myself." He credits Lyle with finding them. The first was in an area found to be inaccessible due to a tremendous overhang of the steep rock cliffs. The second pair of located by Lyle on "April 2nd of this year-1933". They went to the site on April 5, 1933 and found birds present. Finally Jones returned April 14th. He went over the cliffs and found one egg in the hole which the hawk had rounded out. They went back on the 22nd and there was still just one egg.

Three weeks later (May 14) they returned and saw the male present. The rocks at that particular spot were well whitened with excrement. Jones went down on a rope to the nesting ledge and found a set of three eggs. The nest was on a flat ledge 24 inches broad, the female hawk flew around constantly, making a considerable fuss, and at one time coming in very close. Jones collected the eggs which proved to be perfectly fresh, and measured as follows: 2.25x1.74, 2.17x1.80, and 2.12x1.74. Jones signed the published note in 1933 stating that his residence was Independence, Va.

FOOT NOTE: The Lyle egg collection, was stored at Coffey's home in Bristol for more than a year. Many of the eggs were studied there by Dan W. Anderson, a graduate student from the University of Wisconsin, who used the raptor eggs to determine their egg shell thickness. Many of the eggs were prior to the use of DDT and the measurements were used to establish a "control." Anderson flew to Tri-City Airport and spent the day of March 1, 1968 with Coffey and the collection taking measurements of the egg shell thickness and egg weights. With Dr. Joseph J. Hickey (author of Peregrine Falcon Population, 1969) Anderson published Chlorinated Hydrocarbons and Eggshell Changes in Raptorial and Fish-Eating Birds (Science 11 October 1968: Vol 162, pp 271-273). Their paper: Eggshell changes for certain North American birds, 1972, Proceedings of the International Ornithological Congress 15:514-540, followed.

from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club