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The
Buchanan County Bird Club meets the Volume 3 Issue 8 August 2004 |
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Upcoming Events Monday, August 9 Regular BCBC meeting at the Buchanan County Public Library. Roger Mayhorn will present a program on Fall Warblers. Some of the club members will be meeting at Italian Village for a pre-meeting meal. Come join them. The week of August 16 – The Buchanan County Bird Club is planning to set up a table and present information to the new Appalachian School of Law students during their orientation week. The purpose is to make new people in the area aware of the club and to welcome them to come and enjoy the birds with us. All club members are encouraged to come down that day and help make the community more aware of our club and its activities. Saturday, September 25 – BIRCH KNOB HAWK WATCH. Members will again watch for hawks from the Birch Knob observation tower. Members again need to bring a chair and a lunch. Monday, October 11 – BCBC REGULAR MEETING at the Buchanan County Public Library. Since we have many species of sparrows migrating through the area during October, Ed Talbott will present a program on sparrows. |
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Welcome New Club Member
Club President, Roger Mayhorn, is pleased to announce that Professor Paula Young of the Appalachian School of Law wishes to become a member of the Buchanan County Bird Club. She will not be able to attend the August meeting, but plans to attend subsequent meetings. Welcome Professor Young! |
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Buchanan County Bird Club Chosen to Host VSO Conference
Bob Riggs, a member of the board of directors of the Virginia Ornithological Society, recently passed the word to Roger Mayhorn that the Buchanan County Bird Club had been selected to host the annual VSO Conference in 2006. This is a great honor for a club that has only been in existence since December of 2001. Club officers Roger Mayhorn and Ed Talbott had been approached within the last year about the possibility of hosting the annual event. The conference will take place on the weekend of May 6 of 2006 at the Breaks Interstate Park. There may be as many as 200 birders attending. During the weekend of the conference people attending will be taken on birding hikes throughout the area. The club will need help from all of its members to help make the event a success . |
 Second Blackburnian Warbler Found in Buchanan County during
Summer
A second county record was established on Saturday, July 31, 2004 when Ed Talbott found a female Blackburnian Warbler near his home at Weller Yard. The first record was established last year when Ed and Michelle found a Blackburnian on Guesses Fork of Hurley on July 12. Blackburnians nest in Hemlock, Spruce and Fir in Canada, and south along the spine of the Appalachians in mature hardwood forests. These two Blackburnians that have been found within the county during the month of July are probably post-breeding dispersal birds, birds that are moving about after having finished nesting on nearby higher elevation mountains, such as those found in Tazewell and Dickenson counties. The elevation at the Talbott home on the Levisa River is only about 990 feet above sea level. |
 Yellow Warblers
A couple of pairs of Yellow Warblers like the one pictured here have nested around the Mayhorns’ yard this summer. This species is common within the county during spring and summer. They usually arrive in the area in the spring in April, just about the time the apple trees bloom. The male can be distinguished from the female because he has dark reddish streaks on the chest. These small, active birds spend a lot of time searching apple and maple trees for insects. They build a small cup like nest that is suspended from the fork of a small branch, often in a maple tree. In 2002 a pair nested in the maple tree just outside the Mayhorns’ bedroom window. |
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Mayhorns participate in Bird Walk for Highlands Festival
On Sunday, August 1, Roger and Lynda Mayhorn participated in a bird walk at Raven Ridge Bed and Breakfast and Campground on Clinch Mountain near Hayter’s Gap. Raven Ridge is owned and run by Charles and Alona Kennedy. Roger was co-leader of the walk with Larry McDaniel of the Bristol Bird Club. 14 birders showed up for the walk. The birding was slow, but the group did manage to find Black-and-white Warblers, an American Redstart, Eastern Towhees, Tufted Titmice, Carolina Chickadees and Downy Woodpeckers. One of the the highlights of the walk was a Broad-winged Hawk that first perched on a power line, then circled directly overhead as it tried to gain altitude. When the birding was over, and the group hiked back up the graveled road to Raven Ridge, Alona had an unexpected treat waiting. Alona is an excellent cook and had prepared a spinach dip with flatbread and hummus, a dip made of ground sesame seeds. She also had mouth watering pastries made from their own home grown berries. |
  This female Eastern Bluebird is busy carrying food to her brood of 4 nestlings inside this nest box built by Johnnie Ratliff. The nest box is located in the Mayhorns’ yard, and will probably be the last nest of Bluebirds for the 2004 season on Compton Mountain. The parents wait each morning for Roger to put out the daily serving of mealworms. The parent birds then get busy carrying the 50 or 60 worms to their fast growing young. There are still more young to fledge from the Johnnie and Betty Ratliff Bluebird Trail in the Breaks
area.
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Interesting Events |
| On July 31 Ed and Michelle Talbott went birding on the top of Bull Mountain. They saw several feeder flocks of birds moving through the trees. One flock had the Blackburnian Warbler already mentioned. Other species included Kentucky Warblers, Hooded Warblers, Worm-eating Warblers, Black-and-white Warblers, American Redstarts and Common Yellowthroats. They saw lots of young birds. They also saw one Red-tailed Hawk and one Broad-winged Hawk. |
| Marie Miller recently traveled to San Diego California. Even though she was involved with a meeting there she still managed to see a bird she identified as a Blue-headed Parrot. Since this species normally inhabits parts of South America, the bird she saw was more than likely an escaped bird. Way to go Marie! |
| David and Susan Raines and family just returned from a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. David got one lifebird while there when a Shiny Cowbird showed up at a feeder at the Pea Island welcome center. David saw the usual shorebirds, Willets, Whimbrels, etc. They got started home just in time to miss Hurricane Alex’s arrival on the Outer Banks. |
| Roger Mayhorn has been seeing some interesting birds in his yard since nesting season is over and the birds have begun moving around. One day he was watching a Yellow-billed Cuckoo in a walnut tree in his backyard. He noticed a smaller bird just a few feet above it. The smaller bird was a male Black-throated Green Warbler. Since then he has been seeing Black-and-white Warblers, Blue-winged Warblers, Hooded Warblers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Yellow Warblers and a Worm-eating Warbler in addition to the regulars that inhabit his yard. |
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