First Birding Trip to Eastern Tennessee - Breaking the Ice, Sevier and Jefferson Counties, TN, February 17, 2021

This has been a great winter for Evening Grosbeaks in the south.  Earlier in the winter most sightings were flybys of a small number of birds.  For instance I heard 2 birds fly over my yard on November 8, 2020, and a single bird on November 20.  As the winter progressed small flocks were reported at a few feeding stations here and there.  Several photos of these showy birds were posted on the local listserves providing some nice eye candy.

All the recent reports I noticed were from locations in NC – luckily I no longer needed this one for my NC list.  But then on February 9th Galen Goodrum posted an excellent photo of an Evening Grosbeak he saw in Sevierville, TN.  That was just under 2 hours away.  Since it may be a long time before Evening Grosbeaks irrupt into the area again, this may be my last chance to try to add them to my TN list.  When I moved to the area I had planned on traveling to eastern TN to work on that statelist, with the state line just an hour away.  But I had never quite gotten around to doing the research needed to bird in TN.  Maybe the nearby Grosbeaks would give me the impetus I needed to expand my horizons into TN.

I used to travel to Memphis, TN very frequently for work in the late 90’s and 2000’s.  I birded in the area many times with Jeff Wilson who was the best field birder I’ve ever met – I learned a lot from Jeff.  And along with a couple trips to the eastern part of the state over the years, I had amassed a nice state list of 237.  But of course I still needed Evening Grosbeak, along with a few regular species , not to mention numerous rarities.  As a first step to see what statebird targets might be around not too far from home, I set up an eBird Needs Alert for TN.  Quite a number of “needs” popped up, but many were way too far away.  So I needed to sort the long list to focus on counties that are closest to the NC/TN line.  Luckily there was still a considerable list of targets reasonably close to home.  Then I divided the list into those from counties northwest of me near I-40, and those toward the north near I-26. 

There were recent Evening Grosbeak sightings in both areas, but the more recent ones were from the northern counties.  So I initially leaned toward heading north.  But then several new Grosbeak sightings were posted from the Sevierville site to the northwest, including over 100 birds at one feeder.  So with my top target now looking like it was most likely in Sevierville, I focused my final research on the northwestern counties.  There were 2 additional recent targets in nearby Jefferson county – a Long-tailed Duck was seen for a couple days amazingly in a shallow farm pond along Falcon Road in White Pine.  And along that same road there were numerous reports of Sandhill Cranes – up to 55 from one report.  There was also one cryptic report of a pair of Mute Swans quite close to the Grosbeaks.  I say “cryptic” because the location was not shown accurately in the post, and the details mentioned a site that didn’t quite make sense.  Plus given that the post was now a few days old, I decided to pass on that one.  Lastly, I reached out to Galen and learned a bit more about his Evening Grosbeak sighting.

I had completed my research.  My plan was to first head to Sevierville for my highest priority Evening Grosbeaks, staying as long as needed to hopefully find them.  Then I would head to the Falcon Road area to hope for the Long-tailed Duck and Sandhill Cranes.  Now I needed to choose a day with good weather.  The biggest concern was the potential for snow showers or even heavier snow as I crossed over the mountains into TN.  I picked the 17th as a clear day.  Plus, as a bonus, seasonal temps were predicted.  I checked the eBird reports one last time for the latest updates just before I headed out the door – unfortunately the Long-tailed Duck was not found there on the 16th, and the last Crane report was from the 15th.  My optimism was waning a bit, though I’d be happy if I was just able to find the Grosbeaks.

I left the house predawn on the 17th and neared Sevierville at 8:30.  Photos on eBird reports seemed to suggest the Grosbeaks were coming to feeders on Rex Lane at a house with a large railing across the back deck.  And most sightings were from a location that looked to be a roadside pulloff between houses.  After taking a wrong turn that took me on a scary narrow mountain road, I made it to Rex Lane and came to that roadside pulloff.  Just as I pulled in I noticed some movement in trees right in front of me.  With a quick binocular view even through the distortion of my windshield I could tell I had Evening Grosbeaks.  I hopped out of the car and estimated at least 25 birds in the trees right in front of me.  Here’s a photo of a cooperative bird I took holding my phone up to my binocs.

And I could hear more Grosbeaks calling a short distance uphill.  I looked to the house up above me and there were maybe 50 more birds perched on the porch railing.  I got this tape of the flock as they milled about along the railing  The air was full of their raucous calls too - unfortunately I couldn't get the sound to come across.

 That was amazingly easy!  I stayed for 15 or 20 minutes to take it all in.  It reminded my of my time growing up in Maryland when large flocks like this would descend on my feeders every few years.  But that was a different time some 30 or 40 years ago when the eastern population of the Evening Grosbeak was much more common.  In fact, in April 2016 the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) listed the Evening Grosbeak as a species of Special Concern due to strong population declines occurring mainly in central and eastern Canada.

My statebird map for Evening Grosbeak is inserted below – the blue-shaded states are those where I’ve seen this species; the cross-hatched states are those where it is regular but I haven’t yet seen it.  Or at least in the East, those are states where Evening Grosbeak used to be regular.  And now NC and TN are the two tan-shaded states where I’ve seen this species as a rarity.

Next it was off to Falcon Road in Jefferson County.  Although I was happy to have found my top priority target, I was still hopeful that the Long-tailed Duck and Sandhill Cranes might still be around.  Falcon Road cuts through an extensive area of farmland, with several farm ponds nearby.  One eBird report mentioned the Long-tailed Duck was in the “largest pond” – GoogleMaps showed a larger pond adjacent to the road on the west side so I assumed this was the one.  And all recent checklists had good numbers of multiple waterfowl species.  I drove up to what I thought was the key pond and did a quick scan – no waterfowl at all.  I looked more closely and all I could I could fine were a couple Buffleheads.  Perhaps the Long-tailed had indeed moved on.  Or maybe I had the wrong pond – there were other larger ponds a bit farther off the road that could be possible candidates.  I drove a bit farther to the north and came to another pond that was a bit smaller – this one had quite a number of ducks so I was hopeful.  Although I had 7 Shovelers and 23 Green-winged Teal, I could find no diving ducks at all.  It wasn’t looking good. 

There were two ponds on the east side of the road that I had driven by earlier without checking because they were so small.  But with no luck at the larger ponds, I needed to check these last 2 smallest ones.  I turned around and checked the first one – not surprisingly no birds.  Then I got to the next one and saw something floating in the middle.  I put it in my binocs – it was the Long-tailed Duck!  It was close enough that I got this photo holding my phone up to my binocs.

I would have never expected a diving duck on such a small pond.  I guess it too decided this wasn’t the best location because it soon took off and flew back over to its preferred larger pond. 

TN was now the third state where I’ve seen Long-tailed Duck as a rarity, along with CO and NE.  I’ve also seen this species in most of its regular states on the Pacific coast, northeast Atlantic coast, and along the Great Lakes.

Not to be greedy, but now my attention turned to my third target – Sandhill Crane.  There was suitable habitat all around me – rolling hills covered in hayfields and harvested row crops.  I slowly did a 360 scan but didn’t find any tall gray birds walking through the fields.  But with all the hills, there could easily be Cranes nearby that were hiding just out of view.  I drove a bit farther south to get a different angle but again came up empty.  Then I spotted a flock of large birds flying low over one of the fields.  I first thought they were Canada Geese but realized they weren’t quite right.  With a closer look I realized they were Sandhill Cranes – a flock of 9 birds.  They passed over the road and disappeared behind a nearby hill to the west.  A couple minutes later another flock of 15 Cranes flew by, nicely giving their bugling calls - you can see them in the distance near the top of the hill.

 TN was my 38th state for this wide-ranging species, including 12 states on the East Coast where it is a rarity.

That’s 3 for 3 for my targets - what an amazing first trip to eastern TN!  That brings my TN state list to 240. 

Now that I live in western NC, I realize that pursuing statebirds in TN is actually very similar to my old statebirding trips to several New England states when I lived in MA.  Back then it was about an hour drive for me to cross into ME, VT, RI, and CT, and I found many new statebirds in each of those states within 2 hours of home.  So now that I’ve broken the ice for TN birding, I’m looking forward to many more trips to the Volunteer State.  In fact, when researching this trip to the northwest along I-40, I found several other TN targets to the north along I-26.  Hopefully I can make a trip to that part of the state in the near future.

I love statebirding!