Friends of a feather

A group of old friends and new friends flocked to Elizabeth Ellison’s studio in Bryson City last Saturday (May 10) for the 24th annual Great Smokies Birding Expedition. Naturalist George Ellison of Bryson City, East Tennessee State University ornithologist Fred Alsop and master birder Rick Pyeritz of Asheville initiated the GSBE in 1984.

The event, held the first or second weekend in May, is more akin to a birding social than one of those “Big Day” events where extreme birders beat the bushes day and night for 24 hours ticking off every species heard and/or seen. The GSBE kicks off promptly at the crack of 9 a.m. Saturday morning after participants have gathered upstairs in Elizabeth’s gallery, swilling their last swallows of Joe and brushing doughnut crumbs out of the eyepieces of their binoculars.

The group then gets serious and begins an arduous trip along the Tuckasegee River, through the wilds of Bryson City. Actually we began at the picnic table just behind the studio, but those stairs down are pretty steep.

George could probably sit down at the picnic table and check off the birds that would be encountered around town, but to be credible we actually made the walk and recorded what we saw. We got off to a good warbler start with six species – Cape May, blackpoll, northern waterthrush, northern parula, yellow and common yellowthroat – recorded in town. Other good finds in town included orchard oriole and eastern kingbird. We wound up with 45 species in Bryson City.

Now it is time to truly hit the wilderness — but first, lunch. So we carpooled up to the Collins Creek picnic area in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, alert all the way for any note that might trickle in through open car windows and/or any speck in the sky that might turn into a countable species. And this group never dims their birding radar calling out “ovenbird,” “black-throated green,” etc. between bites of turkey wraps, fresh fruit and vegetables and a cool drink of water.

From Collins Creek we blazed a trail up the Blue Ridge Parkway. At one overlook we had exceptional looks at scarlet tanager, blackburnian warbler, black-throated blue warbler and chestnut-sided warbler. A little farther up the Parkway, a Canada warbler was found, oddly enough, foraging in the top of an oak. Once it noticed us watching, however, it quickly flew down to a tangled rhododendron — its more usual habitat.

A stop at the intersection of the Parkway and Heintooga Spur Road provided a flurry of high-elevation species, including brown creeper, golden-crowned kinglet and red-breasted nuthatch. We were also treated to a pair of broad-winged hawks soaring and calling above us from this stop.

We then left the highlands for the fields at Kituwah (formerly Ferguson Fields.) The ever-shrinking wetlands there provided green heron, least sandpiper and lesser yellowlegs. Other species at Kituwah included willow flycatcher, yellow-breasted chat, yellow-throated warbler and bobolink.

We sat under the shed at Kituwah and tallied the checklist for the day — a respectable 85 species. As we started to drive away a pair of wood ducks passed over as if to say, “don’t forget us” — make that 86 species for the day.

Many in the group made it to George and Elizabeth’s home for a potluck that evening. An event I, sadly, had to miss. But this intrepid group of birders wasn’t finished. They met again at the crack of 9 a.m. Sunday morning at Nantahala Outdoor Center and birded up to Tulula Bog where they got good looks at a Golden-winged warbler. The official count for the weekend was 93 species and many more laughs.