The Chat
Buchanan County Bird Club Newsletter
Editors Roger and Lynda Mayhorn

The Buchanan County Bird Club meets the 2nd Monday of each month at the Buchanan County Public Library at 6:30 PM

Volume 1   Issue 8    August 2002

Fellow club members, on Saturday, July 27, 2002 we lost a friend and club member.  Shirley Perkins, wife of Grayson Perkins, passed away at their home.

Whenever I called their house to talk to Grayson, Shirley usually answered the phone.  She enjoyed talking to people.  She and I would chat about the birds that were coming to their feeders, about their hummingbirds, about the turkeys that were feeding near their house, about the hawks she and Grayson were seeing.  She would talk about her discussions with Grayson on what kind of hawks they were, and also about the different birds that she and her nephew, Todd, were good naturedly arguing about.

She greatly enjoyed the feeder Grayson placed just outside their window.  Because of that she could get a good close-up view of the Goldfinches and other birds that fed there.  When she saw a bird she couldn’t identify she went searching in the field guide.  Sometimes she or Grayson would call me to get my opinion. She clearly enjoyed the birds.

Our club and our lives are less rich because of her passing.  I enjoyed those chats with her, and I will miss them.  Our most heartfelt sympathy goes to Grayson, and to the other members of his family.

Roger Mayhorn

 

The July 8 Meeting:

David Raines, was our speaker for this meeting, and did a great job of bringing us up to speed concerning Raptors, mainly hawks and falcons.  Using drawings and photos he showed us how to distinguish between the different hawk groups and how to look for the identifying shapes and marks of each.  With the aid of a tape player he let us hear the calls of the different species. The meeting was very informative and indicative of David’s extensive knowledge of birds.
The information he imparted to us will come in handy in September when hawk migration really gets under way.

Since the July meeting topic was Raptors, Grayson Perkins brought his latest wood masterpiece for us to see.  Using a technique called Intarsa, he cut different pieces of light and dark colored woods and joined them together like a very intricate jigsaw puzzle to create a beautiful Bald Eagle sitting on a tree branch.  Like all of Grayson’s work this one was awe inspiring.  The pieces fit so well together that the bird appeared to be made of one solid block of wood.  With Grayson’s permission the full sized pictures will soon be on our web site http://www.bcbirdclub.org/index.htm 

Grayson also created this striking Red-tailed Hawk using the same Intarsa technique.  I’m not sure you can see in the small photo  that he has utilized the natural grain of the wood to imitate the lesser wing covert feathers.

Grayson has been getting lots of great looks at Red-tails to use as models. He has had two nesting on the hill across from his house, and he has seen them catch at least 5 rabbits and one snake.  The last rabbit was caught within a few yards of Grayson’s yard, and he watched the whole drama unfold.  He said the hawk dropped like a stone from the top of large oak onto the unsuspecting adult Cottontail. With the hawk’s large talons the action was over quickly.

Next Club Meeting:  Monday August 12, 2002

Interesting Events:

David Raines, along with Roger & Lynda Mayhorn, went to Whitetop Mountain near Damascus VA on July 8.  They were in search of the Alder Flycatcher, which had been seen in the area by Bristol Bird Club members.  One flycatcher was seen briefly, but no positive ID was made.  This would have been a lifebird for Roger and Lynda.  The group did find 39 other species, including beautifully colored Chestnut-sided Warblers, Black-throated Blue Warblers, Common Yellow-throats, House Wrens and Veerys.

On July 16 Todd Perkins was sitting on his porch and looked up to see what he thought was a Goldfinch flying directly toward him.  It wasn’t until the bird landed on the railing close-by that he realized that it was a Hooded Warbler.  The bird stayed only a few seconds then flew away.  The event in itself was odd enough, but then on July 20 apparently the same bird repeated the scenario.

To quote Todd, “It felt rather odd to have a Hooded Warbler sitting on the porch with me.”

On July 25 while birding the Compton Mountain golf course Roger Mayhorn found an adult female Chestnut-sided Warbler.  This species passes through the area during the spring and fall migrations, but has never been known to nest here.  They do nest at higher elevations in nearby areas such as High Knob near Norton,  and at Hidden Valley Lake on Brumley Mountain in Washington County.

This is a new record date for Buchanan County.  The fact that the bird was found in July implies that it may have nested here. We will have to give special attention to the golf course area next year during nesting season.
Ed & Michelle Talbott recently returned from their 3 week trip out West.  Their trip covered several states, 8000 miles, and even took them into Alberta Canda.

Left is Ed in Banff Nat Park in Canada, and right is Michelle in front of Mt. Ranier in Washington state.

They hiked almost every day birding such places as the Potholes of North Dakota, Glacier Nat. Park in Montana, Mt. Ranier Nat. Park in Washington, the Costal Region and state parks of Oregon, Yosemite Nat. Park and Death Valley in California. Saguaro Nat. Park, Madera Canyon and Ramsey Canyon of Arizona, Guadalupe Nat. Park and Carlsbad Caverns of New Mexico.  They came home with 118 new birds added to their lifelists. (makes me sick J)  Ed took plenty of video and Michelle exposed rolls and rolls of film.  They promise to do a program for us in the very near future.
  

Roger Mayhorn decided to make life a bit easier for the birds around his place during the summer heat.  He knew that birds couldn’t resist dripping or flowing water, but running water is hard to come by upon Compton Mountain.  So he filled a ground bird bath with rocks and gravels.  Then he ran  plastic tubing with a funnel on one end to the drain of a window air conditioner.  The water that comes from air conditioners is water that condenses from the air due to the cold of the freon gas inside the machine, so it is safe for birds and animals.  He then ran the tubing around the house to the bird bath and mounted it above the bath using a strip of metal that he bent into an L shape.  One end of the metal L he forced into the ground. The metal suspends the tubing over the bath. As the water drips from the air conditioner it runs through the tubing and drips every few seconds into the water in the bath.  As you can see from the photo the birds are enjoying it.  Roger now has two baths going in areas that are easily visible from nearby windows, and the following species are enjoying them: Northern Cardinals, Song Sparrows, American Goldfinches, House Finches, Eastern Towhees, Gray Catbirds, Tufted Titmice, Carolina Wrens and Chipping Sparrows.  As the fall migration gets under way near the end of August he expects to get more species.  Already a Yellow-throated Warbler and a Blue-winged Warbler have investigated the baths though they didn’t bathe.
David and Susan Raines, their children and his parents, recently went vacationing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  While there David and his Dad did some birding at the waterfowl refuge of Pea Island.  As they were entering the walking path that goes around the marsh, a black bird flushed from nearby and flew across in front of them.  David quickly got his binoculars on the bird and found it to be a Black Rail, a species he had been trying to see for about 20 years.  Rails are very secretive, and are usually heard calling from the marsh grasses, but are seldom seen during daylight.  As you can imagine David was elated to add this one to his lifelist.
The Western Virginia Bird Trail was the topic of discussion on July 10, when Robert Tizard, a representative of a company out of Austin, Texas, which is working in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Game and Wildlife, came to evaluate the part of the trail nominated by Roger Mayhorn.  The VA Birding Trail is copied from the great Texas Birding Trail, where birders drive along a main road with side birding trails going off about thirty minutes apart.  The Breaks Park has been nominated. Ed Talbott III nominated the Popular Gap area, and that section had already been evaluated prior to July 10.  Roger had nominated Compton Mountain and nearby Horn Mountain. The road from one mountain leads to the other and both are great birding areas. The young, bearded, Tizzard drove the trail then stopped at the Mayhorns’ to discuss the area with them.  They got into such a discussion he stayed for several hours.  He and Roger did some birding around the Mayhorn place then they all stopped for dinner.
He talked very favorably about the nominated trail section. If these Buchanan trails become a part of the Western Virginia Birding Trail, it will mean more birders will be coming into the county to spend money on motels, food, etc.
Also in the county on July 10 was Mike Stinson, a VA biologist, who was here looking for a species of crayfish (Cambarus veteranus) that is found on the Cumberland plateau.  In Virginia it is only found in Buchanan and Dickenson Counties.  Mike did some birding in the area and found the crayfish in the Levisa and Russell Fork rivers.

Future Events:  

Monday, August 12, the Buchanan County Bird Club meeting at 6:30 PM at the Buchanan County Public Library. 

Saturday, Sept. 14, 2002 the Mayhorns are hosting a Warbler Watch at their home on Compton Mountain.  All members are invited. Lunch will be served, but those coming should bring their own drinks and an extra lawn or camp chair.  Anyone wishing to bring extra drinks, a dessert, etc. should please do so.  Remember that though the birding will be good all day the best warbler action is usually early in the morning between 7:30 and 8:00. 

David Raines has raised the idea for a Hawk Watch Picnic at Beaver Knob near Elkhorn City, KY sometime during September during the peak of hawk migration.  It could be done on a week-end or we could have an evening one after work.  Be thinking about it.  It will be discussed more at the August 10 meeting.

This Michaux’s Lily or Carolina Lily was found on July 22, on Compton Mountain.  It is the first one to my knowledge that has been found in the area.  It was first believed to be a Turk’s Cap Lily, which grows on High Knob, but then after some research that was discounted.  It was named for Andre Michaux, an emissary of King Louis XVI of France, who explored the Appalachians during the mid 1700’s.  He was looking for plants to take back to the king’s royal garden.
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