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The
Buchanan County Bird Club meets the Volume 3 Issue 7 July 2004 |
 July 12 Club Meeting
Several club members met at the Rainbow Restaurant for a meal before the meeting. Club president, Roger Mayhorn, opened the meeting and proposed a birding outing at Keen Mountain Park for Saturday, July 17. The outing was approved and plans were made to meet at the park at 8:00
AM. Ed and Michelle Talbott presented excellent video of the birds on their recent trip to the Western U.S. |
 Go West Young Man (and
Woman)Unlike the young men of the 1800’s Ed and Michelle Talbott needed no coaxing to go west this summer. They birded Louisiana and Texas during the month of June. In Texas they searched for birds on the Texas Coast, in the Rio Grande Valley and in Big Bend National Park. Even though southern Texas was miserably hot and humid, they managed to get over 50 new lifebirds on the trip. Some of the birds seen were Mississippi Kites, Glossy and White-faced Ibis, Blue Mockingbird, Black-headed Nightingale-thrush, Black-necked Stilts, Roseate Spoonbills Common Moorhen, Purple Gallinules, Wood Storks, Fulvous Whistling Ducks, Scissor-tailed Flycatchers, Clapper Rail and Least Bittern. These two birders covered 5,077 miles. For more photos and a more detailed version of their trip go to Ed and Michelle’s web site at http://www.grundynet.net/talbott/birding/hikes/Sum04/Texas.htm |
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Bluebird Trail Update In spite of the large amount of rain this nesting season the cavity nesters have produced a record number of young. The Compton Mountain Trail has fledged 79 birds up to this point with more young still to fledge. 53 of those young were Eastern Bluebirds, 18 were Tree Swallows and 8 were Carolina Chickadees. Monitoring the Johnnie and Betty Ratliff Bluebird Trail in the Breaks area, David Raines has found that the birds in that area have done equally well. 63 birds have fledged there with 30 more young yet to leave the nest. Of the 63 birds fledged, 36 were Bluebirds, 20 were Tree Swallows, 4 were Carolina Chickadees and there is a nest of House Wrens yet to leave. It is difficult to determine the number of House Wrens because they build a nest of twigs all the way to the top of the nest box which is difficult to see into, even using a small mirror. They sometimes have as many as 8 young at one nesting. A nest box erected for Prothonotary Warblers in the marshy area on the Breaks side of Bull Mountain produced no warblers, but did produce 5 Carolina Chickadees. Prothonotary Warblers are the only warblers in our area to nest in cavities. The last birds to fledge from the boxes for the season usually leave in late July or early August. |
 The Purple Martins Return to Little Prater Johnnie and Betty Ratliff used to host Purple Martins in their martin houses every year, but then something happened and the birds did not return the next year. Martins will leave an area if they are preyed upon by hawks, owls, snakes or humans. In any case this year a few pairs of martins showed up to investigate Johnnie’s houses, then to start nesting. Soon there were several pairs. Sometimes there were as many as 40 martins flying about and visiting the houses. Some of these birds were evidently from neighboring colonies not too far away. Martins like to nest near humans, probably because they feel safer. They are also sociable birds and will come down to fly close to investigate when someone walks near their nest area. Johnnie says the birds are very friendly and are also very vocal. They keep up a constant melodic chirping. Johnnie’s birds were busy building and nesting, but then were attacked by House Sparrows and European Starlings. The House Sparrows would take over a martin nest and build their own nest on top of it. The starlings went into the houses and pecked and dragged the young from the nests. Johnnie found 6 young birds on the ground at one time. Three of them he replaced in the house after getting rid of the starling, but three of them were dead. The last time Johnnie checked he had at least 16 martin eggs, but he is sure there have been more laid since then. The young are almost ready to fledge. Soon the young will leave and soon after the martins will gather in large flocks to head southward to South America, where they will spend the winter. Johnnie’s and Betty’s yard will be much quieter after they are gone. They will have to wait until next spring to hear our largest swallow’s gurgling calls as they arrive for the next nesting season. |
Keen Mountain Birding On the morning of Saturday, July 17, seven members of the Buchanan County Bird Club gathered at Keen Mountain Park to do some birding before the day got too warm. Present were Ed and Mary Talbott, Ed and Michelle Talbott, Roger and Lynda Mayhorn and Marie Miller. The group managed to log 31 species even though the sky was overcast and there didn’t seem to be a lot of bird movement. The highlight of the trip was a Red-eyed Vireo nest with young not far from the road. Ed Talbott III set up his scope and everyone got good looks at the nestlings that were about ready to fledge. Some of the other species seen or heard at the park were Black-and-White Warbler, Hooded Warbler, Ovenbird, Scarlet Tanagers, Eastern Phoebes, an Eastern Wood Pewee, several Indigo Buntings, a Common Yellowthroat, 3 White-eyed Vireos, 2 Wood Thrushes and 2 Yellow-billed Cuckoos. |
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Interesting Events Jack Brown at Hurley has been seeing some interesting birds at his place. A female American Redstart has been hanging around. He has also seen a couple of Cedar Waxwings. These two birds are the first of that species he has seen at his home. His father-in-law, Arville, observed a Louisiana Waterthrush in the creek near his house near Hurley. He said that, as a boy, the name he heard for that species was, “Creek Bird”. |
| David Raines saw 4 Great Blue Herons recently in the Breaks area. His neighbor and fellow birder, Ed Bailey, saw a smaller white “heron like bird” on his property recently. It was probably a Snowy or Cattle Egret. A Cattle Egret was seen there earlier in the spring. David has also seen some Blue-winged Warblers around his home recently. This could be post nesting dispersal, where birds, once their young are out of the nest, are no longer tied to a particular nesting territory. They then move to other areas searching for food and building up fat reserves before starting their migration in the fall. David has had a lack of Yellow-breasted Chats in his area this year. This is unusual because the open bushy fields on David’s property are perfect habitat for this species. David almost always has Chats nesting nearby. He can’t explain why they are not there this year. David has also had a Sharp-shinned Hawk giving chase to the birds in his area this summer. |
 Roger and Lynda Mayhorn are also seeing some interesting birds moving about in their area on Compton Mountain. Two Blue-winged Warblers were recently playing “chase” in the cherry tree just outside their kitchen window. They have also seen some Black-and-white Warblers and some Blue-gray Gnat Catchers there as well. The Pagoda Dogwood in their yard that has produced its summer crop of small blue berries, has been bringing in Red-eyed Vireos, Robins, Catbirds, Brown Thrashers and Chats. They even saw an Eastern Phoebe eating one of the berries. A Yellow-breasted Chat nested in their raspberry patch again this year. The female laid only two eggs, and one of those did not hatch. The single nestling, however, did
fledge. A couple of weeks ago a Sharp-shinned Hawk sneaked up on some Mourning Doves at the feeders in the Mayhorns’ yard and forced one dove to fly into the side of the house. Roger happened to be looking out of the dining room door at the moment and saw the drama unfold. At one point the hawk, with wings and tail outspread as it was trying to make a turn, was positioned just inches from the glass door. According to Roger the dove hitting the house sounded as if someone had thrown a baseball against the dwelling. The hawk caught the bird on the rebound, before it had time to hit the ground.
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