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 4     Issue 3     March 2005

In this meeting Ed Talbott’s excellent video of the Tree Sparrows at David Raines’ feeders was shown, then the price of club shirts was discussed. Plans were made to check with some more printing companies and make comparisons. There was then some bird and nest identification practice.

Monday, March 14 – The regular monthly meeting of the Buchanan County Bird Club – 6:00 p.m.

Friday, April 22 – Peggy Spiegel, member of the VSO, and member of the New River Valley Bird Club will present a program called “The Dashing World of Hummingbirds” at 10:00 a.m. to the annual Mid-Atlantic Garden Fair at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, VA. The fee is $5.00 per day for the fair or $10:00 for the three-day event. Lectures are included in the price of admission.

May 20-22 Magee Marsh Trip – These dates are still not definite. The festival at Magee Marsh (Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge) is usually held the week-end of The International Migratory Bird Day, which this year is on the week-end of May 14. We usually plan our trip the week-end after to avoid the large crowds. So far nothing has been posted on the Ottawa NWR’s web page. 

June 4-8 The Virginia Society of Ornithology (VSO) will have its annual birding foray in Wise County this year. Birders from all areas of the state are invited to join the birding during that week. Norton will be the headquarters during the foray and the whole county will be covered. The VSO wants local birders to participate if possible, so we should make plans to help out with this outing, since it is in our neck of the woods.

Saturday, June 11 – Members of the Buchanan County Bird Club will meet members of the Bluefield Bibbee Nature Club at 9:00 a.m. at the Flowers Bakery Outlet at the intersection of Rte. 460 and Rte 680. This is about half way between Richlands and Grundy. Rte 680 is the road crossing Bill Young Mt. The group will then cross Bill Young Mountain and travel up to Horn Mountain. After spending the morning driving/birding Horn Mountain the birders will then drive up to Keen Mt. Park, where they will eat their picnic lunches and bird around the park area. 

On March 10, 2005 BCBC Vice-President, Ed Talbott, received an e-mail from David Whitehurst, a member of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, notifying him that the Department wants to release Peregrine Falcons within the Breaks Park this spring. Mr. Whitehurst and another member of the VA DGIF, Allen Boynton, looked the park over last year with Roger Mayhorn and Ed Talbott to find a suitable place for release. The young birds will remain caged for a few weeks until they get used to their surroundings within the park. It is hoped that they will later nest within the park.

Johnnie Ratliff has completed the 16 nest boxes and predator guards needed for the two new bluebird trails that will be established within the county this spring. Johnnie and Betty paid for all of the materials for building the boxes. Permission has already been granted for 10 boxes to be erected along the roadway leading out to Keen Mt Park. Carl Mullins, Superintendent of the Breaks Park, has also given permission for 6 nest boxes to be placed along the edge of Laurel Lake inside the park. Those along the lake will probably be occupied by Tree Swallows, a beautiful greenish-blue bird, that is often seen catching insects on the wing over the lake. Roger and Lynda Mayhorn have painted the boxes, numbered them and have the bird club name painted on each box. Johnnie has also completed 15 more nest boxes for future use. The Virginia Bluebird Society (VBS) agreed to pay for the materials for the 16 boxes. When the $219.00 dollar reimbursement check was received, Johnnie and Betty generously donated it to the bird club. Thank you, Johnnie and Betty. What would we do without you?

Roger Mayhorn took down 11 of the 23 boxes on the Compton Mt. Trail for cleaning, repair and painting. He finished the job and put the boxes back up within 24 hours because some of the boxes were being used for roosts by the bluebirds, and he wanted to finish the job before cold weather returned. The other 12 boxes on the Compton Mt. trail had been painted previously. At least two more boxes will be added to the Compton Mt. Bluebird Trail this spring. Ronald Compton of Compton Mt. has given permission for another nest box to be placed on his property, and Arthur and Maxine Mullins, also on Compton Mt., say they have room for two or three boxes on their property.

Another job yet to be accomplished is the changing of all of the predator guards on the Johnnie and Betty Ratliff Bluebird Trail in the Breaks area. The old guards were made of a plastic that became brittle due to ultraviolet light, so Johnnie and Roger modified the design of one they found on the VBS web site. The new design is much more durable and more effective in repelling predators. David Raines has worked hard the last two years monitoring the trail in the Breaks. In spite of his busy family schedule, he checks the boxes regularly and gathers information about each nest. At the end of the season, which goes from April through August, he hands the data over to Roger Mayhorn, who then compiles the data from all of the trails within the county and sends it to the Virginia Bluebird Society. If anyone wants to help with the monitoring of a trail it would be appreciated. If a few people were to volunteer to help monitor, the time could be divided into sections so one or two people would not be responsible for the whole trail all summer.

Roger Mayhorn talked with boy scout leader, Robert Rife, of the possibility of the local scouts establishing a small bluebird trail at a small park just below the new Whitewood school of Twin Valley High. Mr. Rife was receptive to the idea. The VBS will also pay for the materials for trails set up by scouts.

The Virginia Society of Ornithology has begun the publication of a quarterly journal, which will record unusual avian records for the state of Virginia. The first issue covering the period June-July 2004 was recently mailed out to VSO members. The magazine will be free for VSO members for the first year. After that a fee will be charged. Roger and Lynda Mayhorn are the regional editors for 14 western counties. They take reports from regional birders, and they filter information from several birding listservs. 

Seven BCBC club members participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count during the week-end of February 18-21. The counts were then logged on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology web site, where they became a part of the 50,000 lists entered there. Over all of North America 600 species were seen and 6 million birds were counted. Thanks to the following club members (in alphabetical order) who participated in this year’s count: Clarence Brown, Roger and Lynda Mayhorn, David Raines, Johnnie and Betty Ratliff and SheldonWoods. The results for the count can be viewed at the following web site http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/results/index.html

John S. Humphrey, along with other wildlife biologists at the National Wildlife Research Center in Gainesville, Florida is requesting sightings be reported of vultures with tags on their wings. Conducting research in the movements of vultures, the biologists placed yellow or white cattle ear tags on the right wings of several vultures. Each tag has a letter and a number that may be visible from below the birds as they soar. The birds with yellow tags were marked and released in North Florida. The white-tagged birds were marked and released in Virginia and Florida. Information regarding the sighting of one of these birds should be sent to the USGS Bird Banding Lab in Maryland at http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/bbl/

On February 9 Ed Talbott III, while watching a Phoebe that has spent the winter near his house at Weller Yard, spotted a Great Blue Heron flying up into the hollow of Lynn Camp.

Among the regular visitors at the Mayhorns’ feeders on Compton Mt. on February 10 were one Pine Siskin, one Red-breasted Nuthatch and a Northern Mockingbird. For a period of time they came almost every day. The Mockingbird is still coming every day, but the last Pine Siskin was observed on March 4 and the Red-breasted Nuthatch was last observed on March 3. 

Burkes Garden Birding

Roger and Lynda Mayhorn , David Raines, Ed Talbott III, Ed and Mary Talbott and Sheldon Woods braved the low temperatures and cutting wind on February 12 to bird Burkes Garden. They were able to see two Golden Eagles, Rough-legged Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Common Ravens, Green-winged Teal, Red-headed Woodpeckers as well as Fox Squirrels and White-tailed Deer. BCBC members encountered members of The New River Valley Bird Club and the Bristol Bird Club, who were birding the area on the same day. Photos of the day can be seen at http://users.mikrotec.com/mayhorn/BIMG/BurkesGarP.htm

The first Woodcock of the season was found by David Raines at his home in the Breaks on February 16. Three or 4 more were displaying there on March 4.David also found an American Kestrel, 3 Red-tailed Hawks in the air at one time, 14 Robins, 3 Red-winged Blackbirds, 1 Mockingbird and 1 Northern Flicker. The Brown Thrasher that decided to spend the winter at David’s is still coming regularly to his feeder as is the Yellow-rumped Warbler feeding on the suet block.

A Sharp-shinned hawk made an appearance at the Mayhorns’ feeders on Compton Mt. on February 17. It made a dive at the birds on the feeder, but didn’t connect. Another showed up at the feeders on February 27 and yet again on March 1.

Red-shouldered Hawks have been seen at David Raines’ house in the Breaks recently. Two were also seen at the Mountain Top Golf Course on Compton Mt. on February 22 and again on February 26. These two birds were putting on a courting aerial display, as they called and dived at each other. Red-shouldereds have nested in that area for many years.

Sandpipers and plovers move through the area on their way northward during this time of the year. A Killdeer was heard by David Raines in the Breaks on February 23. One was heard by Roger Mayhorn on Compton Mt. on February 25.

In mid-February two female Long-tailed Ducks (formerly known as “Old Squaw”) were found on a pond in the middle of Saltville, VA. Roger and Lynda Mayhorn drove over on February 19 and found one of the ducks, which Roger photographed. Normally these are coastal ducks, but sometimes they do appear on inland bodies of water.

A male American Kestrel showed up at Johnnie and Betty Ratliff’s house at the mouth of Little Prater on February 15. This small falcon was chasing the birds at the feeders.
Fox Sparrows 

This has been a good winter for Fox Sparrows. Johnnie and Betty Ratliff had two at their feeders early in the winter. They were still there on March 1. Roger and Lynda Mayhorn had their first one on February 25. On March 1, during a snowstorm, they had 3 of these large, reddish-brown sparrows on the ground among the many other feeder birds. One showed up at the home of Ernest and Shirley Raines (David’s parents) on March 2. David Raines finally found one at his feeder on March 10, though he may have had them at the feeder while he was away at work during the day.Bob Riggs has been seeing the unusual numbers of 5 or 6 Fox Sparrows at a time in Russell County. At one feed lot he found a record number of 11 or 12 Fox Sparrows together.

Ed Talbott III stopped by Stuart’s Pond in Rosedale on February 25 and found 2 Hooded Mergansers, 1 Bufflehead, 1 Gadwall and 2 Mallards. The waterfowl are on the move northward to their nesting grounds.

Sheldon and Orpha Woods on March 1 for the first time had a Dark-eyed Junco and a White-throated Sparrow at their feeder. Their regular Red-bellied Woodpecker and Downy Woodpecker are still coming to the feeder. Earlier on February 28 they had a House Finch for the first time. 

Shirley Justus got a new lifebird to add to her life list when she and her daughter, Michelle Talbott birded Guesses Fork near the Justus home on March 6. They found a Horned Lark feeding there. These ground feeding birds like to feed in open pastures and fields where there is sparse vegetation. A resident flock of Horned Larks can be found year round at the top area of Poplar Gap Park.

Fifty Northern Cardinals showed up at the Mayhorns’ feeders on March 8. There were 35 males and 15 females. The record number prior to this was 35 total, counted on December 23, 2004. Two pages of photos can be seen at http://users.mikrotec.com/mayhorn/BIMG/NCarP1.htm

March 8 was a day for record bird numbers at local feeders. Johnnie and Betty Ratliff had 4 Hairy Woodpeckers and 2 Downys. While Roger Mayhorn was on the phone with Johnnie, discussing Johnnie’s feeder birds, Roger looked out the window to see 5 Downy Woodpeckers at his feeders. 

As Roger and Lynda Mayhorn were driving home from Grundy on March 9, they saw a small Sharp-shinned Hawk glide across the road in front of them carrying a chipmunk. This very small hawk was having trouble carrying this heavy load. It finally settled down on a grassy slope near the road to eat its meal.

The Purple Martins are on their way back from their winter stay in South America. This largest American swallow has slowly been making its way northward for the last few weeks. They have already been spotted in Tennessee, Eastern Virginia and Western Kentucky. According to records kept by Johnnie Ratliff 14 of these sleek blue-black flyers arrived at his martin houses last year on April 14. By the end of the nesting season Johnnie and Betty had 40 birds that departed for warmer climes on August 5. Johnnie and Betty are looking forward to their return in a few weeks. 

A Barred Owl was heard by David Raines in the Breaks Park on March 5. No Great Horned Owls have been heard recently in the park. If they were there they could prove disastrous to the Peregrine Falcon project. Great Horned Owls will kill young Peregrines.