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Owls in the Smokies (long)



This was originally written for the Tennessee bird listserve, but it
includes NC birding info so I thought I'd send it here as well...

Tonight (Saturday, April 7) will be my third trip to the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park this spring in search of calling Northern Saw-whet
Owls. (there was an announcement on TN-BIRD this week about this trip)
Reports of this little owl have been non-existent, as far as I have heard,
for the past 4-5 years in the Smokies, except for the 2 Charlie Muise found
in Cades Cove and Tremont in winter. Those two would have been migrants -
but were they northern migrants or altitudinal migrants that nest in the
higher elevations of the Smokies? I have wondered if the changing
spruce/fir forest has affected the Saw-whet population.
Over the past 3 years, I persoanlly had only tried twice to hear these
birds...with no luck, but not during early spring, which I believe is the
best time to hear them here. Thus, I planned 2 Tennessee Ornithological
Society field trips to listen for them...and ended up going on a third
trip, last night, to scout the area for tonight's trip, and to try to get
some more life birds for visiting birder Frederik Haas, from Sweden.

Charlie Muise picked up Frederik at Cades Cove in mid-afternoon. They saw a
few WILD TURKEYs along the road from Townsend to Sugarlands Visitor Center,
where I met them about 5:30 p.m. Along the way, they also found some
LOUISIANA WATERTHRUSHes. Sugarlands was rich with YELLOW-THROATED WARBLERs,
BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER, EASTERN PHOEBE, CAROLINA CHICKADEE, AMERICAN CROW,
TURKEY VULTURE, a flyover OSPREY that Frederik spotted, CHIPPING SPARROWs.
We drove up to the Alum Cave Trailhead parking lot and walked in a short
distance. Birds were quiet, but we did see and hear DARK-EYED JUNCOs
singing in ways we couldn't remember having heard before. Also, a
BLUE-HEADED VIREO sang for us and there were 2 CHICKADEE species that never
called or sang. They didn't get very close to us and at this elevation, I
don't feel confident identifying them to species without seeing or hearing
more. When identified on this part of the trail in the past, they have
almost always been Black-capped, but these didn't look like that species.
Next we stopped at Newfound Gap. I was confident Charlie was finally going
to see ravens in the Park - he hadn't been able to find any all
winter/spring. We did have plenty of COMMON RAVENs in the area. Some
AMERICAN CROWs gave us the opportunity to study these birds
together...though seeing them on the ground made it harder to id them. We
heard a distant RED-BREASTED NUTHATCH (in North Carolina) and a BARRED OWL
called out (NC). Other than a small number of Juncos and some AMERICAN
ROBINs, that was all.
We drove up the Clingmans Dome Road to Indian Gap parking area. What a
surprise!!! An EASTERN MEADOWLARK was sitting in the top of a spruce tree!
At close to 6000 feet in elevation! No fields around! The things you'll see
in migration...and we did - at least 30 more meadowlarks flew over, going
from NC to Tenn, and we saw a few more along the drive up the mountain.
We heard but never saw (unfortunately for Frederik, who needed them as life
birds - but he has another day in the Smokies today to find them :-)
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLETS and BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEEs, a lot more Juncos, a
NORTHERN FLICKER on the ground, hundreds of robins! As we'd drive up the
road, robins and juncos would scatter from the roadside. But in one group
there were some darker birds...RUSTY BLACKBIRDs!!! Charlie and Frederik had
seen at least one in Tremont earlier in the day, but here were at least 3,
one female and two males in various plumage including a breeding male.
These were in NC and were a new state bird for me.
We walked part of the Appalachian Trail (AT) where we added a pair of DOWNY
WOODPECKERs and more WINTER WRENs singing (I forgot to include them earlier
- we heard them at other places along Clingmans Dome Rd).
As it got darker, we started to find a target bird we really hoped to see -
RUFFED GROUSE! We saw 4 different birds, probably 3 females and one larger
male. One was chasing something fairly large...it caught a good-sized black
salamander and ate it.
As we neared the top of the road at Clingmans Dome, more fog set in and it
was hard to see the road. There would be no spectacular sunsets this
evening! Darkness was falling and we started to work our way back down the
mountain, stopping occassionally to try to hear our main target. Nothing at
the top...nothing at the first or second stops. We pulled in at Indian Gap
and listened...nothing. We walked in the dark along part of the AT to where
there is an owl nest box on a tree...nothing happening there. Back at the
parking lot, Charlie used a bright light to scan the trees...we didn't see
anything but soon we heard a wonderful 'beeping' sort of sound....a
NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL was calling!!! It was along the AT, and on the
Tennessee side. Great bird to add to our state year lists. We walked in,
hoping to get to see the bird...slowly, quietly walking. But we couldn't be
quiet enough. It stopped calling...then we heard the sound of wings against
branches...and it was gone. But we had it! A Saw-whet owl calling in the
Smokies in spring.

I hope this 'WHETs' your appetite for tonight's trip. See you at 4:30 at
Lot 66 on the Agriculture Campus of the Univ of Tenn...or 5:30-6:00 at
Sugarlands Visitor Center in the Smokies.

David Trently,
Knoxville, TN
dtrently@utk.edu