1 week Ago By BRYAN STEVENS
Brayden Paulk recently sent me an email to share some recent bird sightings he has made in Georgia. As background, I’ve known Brayden since the summer of 2016. At the time, he was 17 years old and visiting with his grandparents in Flag Pond for the summer.
We got acquainted thanks to an amazing ruffed grouse hanging out at a barn. Brayden named the grouse Rufous who, as it turned out, was a remarkable bird. Ruffed grouse are, as a rule, shy and retiring birds.
Not Rufous. He was an in-your-face sort of grouse. Getting to meet and observe this amazing bird was a privilege.
After we met so that I could make acquaintance with Rufous, Brayden and I did some birding at Rock Creek Recreation Area and then some stops on U.S. Forest Service lands along Highway 107 between Limestone Cove and the North Carolina line.
Brayden wanted very much to add a black-throated blue warbler to his life list, and I very much wanted to help him find it. We did manage to locate a singing veery, a scarlet tanager and a dark-eyed junco. We also found several warblers, including black-and-white warbler, worm-eating warbler and black-throated green warbler, but I began to fear we wouldn’t manage to locate his target bird.
But I am happy to report that we managed to find a male black-throated blue warbler. So, that productive morning back in 2016 resulted in my meeting with a grouse with a lot of personality and Brayden getting a new species for his life list of birds. When we first met, Brayden was living with his family in Oxford, Alabama.
During our first in-person meeting he made a point to tell me that his grandparents, Leon and Janice Rhodes, mailed him every one of my bird columns. These days he is living in Georgia, which is also providing the focus for most of his birding. He returns often to Tennessee.
In fact, he has given a couple of talks to the Elizabethton Bird Club over the years, impressing his audience with his enthusiasm and engaging way of presenting information. His talk were, surprisingly, not about birds. He spoke about his other passion, fishing, but still managed to make a few mentions of birds in the process.
Brayden has also worked for a couple of summers at Lamar Alexander Rocky Fork State Park in Flag Pond as a seasonal interpretive ranger. Anyway, enough with the background and back to his recent email. “I hope everything is going well with you and the bird club,” he wrote.
“I wanted to contact you about some interesting recent sightings I have had that I thought you would be interested in. I have been able to put a lot of effort into birding so far this spring and it has turned up some fantastic finds.” His finds have even established some records in Laurens County in Georgia where he now lives.
His local birding loop in his home county has been very productive. On April 7, his observations of common loons resulted in a county high count for the species. He found 14 loons on one lake and six on another nearby lake.
The next highest count before his sighting had stood at two birds. “That loop has also been very productive for shorebirds, as there are some flooded areas in nearby fields where I have seen lots of greater and lesser yellowlegs and snipe,” he wrote. “I also got excellent views of a Swainson's warbler within feet of me at an area on the loop with some swamp and cane thicket habitat,” Brayden added.
That sighting alone is something that would make many birders envious. I have been birding since 1993 and I can count on one hand the number of looks I’ve had of Swainson’s warbler. The species is often localized, meaning it takes some effort to locate.
It’s easy to hear them. The Swainson’s warbler has a loud, ringing song similar to a Louisiana waterthrush. I’ve heard Swainson’s warblers much more frequently than I have seen them.
Brayden also shared his excitement about seeing his first first Horned Lark in the county. He saw the lark, a bird of open fields, at a different location. “It seems to be one of those birds you have to try to find by going to a sod farm or open country,” he noted.
“The Laurens County Loop has also been great for me in the past, and one particular pond turned up the first eBird county records for American avocet, white-rumped sandpiper and long billed dowitcher,” he wrote. “I have also found breeding painted buntings on the loop as well and had an excellent view of them with my dad.” Brayden also wanted to share some more exciting news.
“I will be moving to Gulf Shores in coastal Alabama in a few weeks, which is one of my favorite places to go birding,” he wrote. “I plan on going to Dauphin Island on the Global Big Day because it is an incredible place to see migrants, and my goal is to find 150 species on that day.” This year’s Global Big Day is scheduled for Saturday, May 10.
Global Big Day is an annual birdwatching event hosted by eBird and Cornell Lab of Ornithology to celebrate and document bird migration. The event was created as a fun and engaging way for bird enthusiasts of all levels to contribute to science and conservation by reporting their bird sightings. Brayden also hopes to visit Unicoi County again soon to do some birding there and look for some of the species he missed last Summer.
“Thank you for writing your bird articles,” he wrote at the conclusion of his email. “They have inspired me since I was young!” It’s not easy to put into words how much that unexpected praise made me feel. I am incredibly gratified that I could have provide some inspiration to get such a gifted young man into the field looking for birds.
Readers may recall that I’ve had some deterioration of vision in recent years. With a pair of binoculars, I can still bring birds close enough to enjoy and appreciate their beauty and vivacity. Spotting birds, which is a skill that takes some practice to achieve, is no longer easy for me.
Ah, the things we take for granted...
My hearing remains unimpaired. I have enjoyed making note of returning warblers and other birds simply by hearing their familiar songs ringing through the woodlands at my home for yet another spring. For the past couple of weeks I’ve also had the pleasure of watching daily as a feisty male ruby-throated hummingbird visits the feeders arranged around my front porch.
In closing, I invite everyone to wish Brayden luck with his upcoming Global Big Day. I hope to update everyone with how he does. ••• To share a sighting, ask a question or make a comment, email me at ahoodedwarbler@aol.
com ..
