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

The Buchanan County Bird Club meets the
2^nd Monday of each month at the
Buchanan County Public Library at 6:00 PM

Volume 5     Issue 7     July 2006

June 13 Meeting

Instead of a regular club meeting a celebratory picnic was decided upon to be held on June 13 at Enoch’s Branch Park. This event was to celebrate the successful hosting of the Virginia Society of Ornithology’s annual meeting by the Buchanan County Bird Club in May. Seventeen members and one guest attended. Faithful members, Fred and Janice Martin, came all the way from Bristol to take part. As Sheldon Woods fired up the grill for hot dogs and hamburgers, several members of the group went on a birding hike in the park. Both Golden-winged Warblers and Blue-winged Warblers were found with Hooded Warblers and Black-and-whites also being found. After a hike and good food the club members presented Lynda Mayhorn with a gift for all of her hard work in organizing the VSO weekend event. The gift was a figurine of St Francis of Assisi with birds perched on his arms and shoulders. Lynda was also presented with a gift certificate for a pedicure and a massage.

Roger and Lynda Mayhorn then presented Ed & Michelle Talbott with a gag gift bag with items for their upcoming Florida trip and Caribbean Cruise. Photos of the picnic can be found at Ed Talbott III’s website at http://www.pbase.com/aquilaet/enochs

This was the regular monthly meeting of the Buchanan County Bird Club at the Buchanan County Public Library. Ed & Michelle Talbott presented some very interesting video of birds found on their recent Florida birding trip and cruise. But before that took place, club president, Roger Mayhorn, welcomed two new bird club members Jerry and Jane Thornhill, and presented the Birder of the Month award. David Raines read an interesting article from an historical book called “Virginia’s Baby “, which told the history of Dickenson County. The article explained how Crane’s nest River got its name from the hundreds of cranes (probably Great Blue Herons) that nested along its banks during early the times of the early settlers. During the meeting Michelle Talbott displayed a bird quilt that was made for her by her mother. 

Members of the BCBC want to welcome Jerry and Jane Thornhill of Rosedale VA as new club members. They came to the July 10 meeting to see the program presented by Ed & Michelle Talbott.

BCBC members have enjoyed birding previously with Jerry and Jane at other birding events, and look forward to birding more often with them now that they are Buchanan County Bird Club members.

Bird Quilt

Here is a photo of Michelle Talbott with the bird quilt that her mother, club member Shirley Justus made for her.

Ed & Michelle Talbott won Birder of the Month Awards for June, when they got several new lifebirds while on their Florida trip. Two important birds they added to their lifelists were the Swallow-tailed Kite and the Snail Kite. Ed managed to get video of both species. . For a full write-up and great photos of their trip go to:

http://www.grundynet.net/talbott/Florida.htm
and
http://www.pbase.com/aquilaet/florida

On July 7 Bob Sweaney, who lives near Pikeville, saw 20-25 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers while on a bird walk. Many of the birds appeared to be young ones, since they still had some down on them. On the same walk he also saw a Black-and-white Warbler and a heard a Hooded Warbler.

The day before Bob got very close to a female American Redstart just outside his back door.

This Mourning Dove appeared at the Mayhorns’ yard on Compton Mt on July 13. Its face is more lightly marked than other Mourning Doves. This is probably just a bird with partial albinism, a condition where some feathers have no pigment or coloring. Albinos or partial albinos appear fairly often in the bird world.

Sheldon and Orpha Woods have had some new bird species show up in their yard at Vansant. First Sheldon saw a female Hooded Warbler on July 6. A few days later he saw a Black-and-white Warbler. A few days after that a male Scarlet Tanager was sighted in their yard.

This spring Sheldon became part of a study for the Wild Bird Feeder Industry where the industry sends willing bird watchers four feeders and 10 different types of seed. The watcher records which species come to the respective feeders. This is the same study that Roger Mayhorn has been taking part in since December of 2005. More information about the study can be found at http://www.projectwildbird.org

During the recent 90 + temperatures at least eight species of warblers have shown up at the small yard stream at the Mayhorns’ on Compton Mt. Since nesting season is nearly finished these birds are moving around to find new feeding areas, and of course cool water. The species seen and photographed there by Roger were a male Blue-winged Warbler, a Kentucky Warbler, a Cerulean Warbler, a Yellow Warbler (photo), a Yellow-breasted Chat, a Black-and-white Warbler, a pair of Hooded Warblers, and a 1st year female Chestnut-sided Warbler. Photos of some of these birds can be found on Roger’s website at http://www.pbase.com/mayhorn/new_birds

Cheryl Thompson at Big Rock saw some large brown crow-like birds at her feeders on July 20, which were probably juvenile Common Grackles. She also had a beautiful male Indigo Bunting at one of her feeders.

On July 16 She saw a very unusual Rosy Maple Moth. A photo of that moth species can be found on the internet at http://bugguide.net/node/view/19258