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| The
Black Mountains looking east from Big
Bald |
The Big Bald Banding Station (BBBS) is a volunteer bird
migration monitoring and research program operating in the southern
Appalachian mountains of NC and TN during the months of September
and October. We welcome visitors at all times but limit visitor
participation in day to day activities based on experience, level of
interest and needs of the program. Bird safety and welfare is our
primary concern while collecting migration data at Big Bald. BBBS is
permitted under the USFWS Bird Banding Lab and the Cherokee National
Forest. Formal data on birds migrating and using the Big Bald
mountain habitat as a migration stopover have been collected on
generally the same site since 1978. The banding station was
privately established by Dr. George Mayfield and Cleo Mayfield of
Columbia, TN. Their passion and enthusiasm for banding birds
have produced a 25+ year data set that can be a valuable tool in
identifying trends in bird population health, age structure and
migration patterns.
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| September sunrise from Big Bald Banding
Station |
Big Bald is located on the eastern
Tennessee/western North Carolina border at an elevation of
approximately 5200 feet above sea level (1585m). The habitat
is an edge transition mix of maintained grassy bald, invasive
annual and perennial forbs, weather stunted northern
hardwoods, a few scattered spruce-fir trees and heath
thickets. Vistas open to the north towards Erwin, TN and
northeast toward Roan Mountain. Mt. Mitchell and the Black
mountain range, with the highest peaks in the eastern United
States, looms ten miles to the southeast.
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Peregrine Falcon |
BBBS is one of the few stations in the
country that monitors and bands both songbirds and birds of
prey, including
owls. An average of over 1000 passerines are
captured, banded and safely released each autumn
migration at Big Bald. A
raptor trapping sub-station was added in 2003 that lures and
bands approximately 100 birds of prey of 8 different species.
Raptor migration counts also commenced in 2003, documenting
the passage of approximately 2500 birds of prey of 14
species.
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Big Bald Mountain has recently been
accepted into the Tennessee Important Bird Areas program.
Kudos to all involved with the banding project now and to
those that participated over the past years for carefully
documenting bird activity at Big Bald. Your time on the
mountain helped to secure the IBA designation that will
protect and honor this valuable high altitude habitat for
years to come.
Click here for details of TN
IBA programs
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