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 11     November 2006

Local college students were guests at the November club meeting with their teacher and club member, Marie Miller. Roger Mayhorn presented a program on his October trip with Bob Riggs and Tom Hunter to Cape May, NJ to see the hawk migration there. 

Here Janice Martin belatedly receives her Birder of the Month Award for July, when she got several lifebirds on her trip to Trinidad and Tobago. 

The Birder of the Month Award for November goes to Richard Kretz for his sighting and photographing the Red-throated Loon on South Holston Lake on November 24th.This is the third Birder of the Month Award won by Richard.  Good going Richard!

Dec 11 BCBC Christmas Dinner – This annual event will take place at 6:00 p.m. at Bellacino’s in Grundy. Club Secretary & Treasurer, Lynda Mayhorn, has reserved the conference room in the back of the restaurant. Those attending should bring the traditional $5.00 birding Christmas gift, as gifts will be exchanged. Members pay for their own meals.

Dec 16 Breaks CBC – The annual Breaks Christmas Bird Count will take place on Saturday, December 16. All members are encouraged to come out and join other birders in finding as many birds as possible in a 15-mile radius circle within one day.

Dec 30 Russell County (Blackford) CBC – The Russell County Christmas Bird Count will take place on December 30. The Russell County Bird Club invites all birders to come and assist its members in doing this count. Some BCBC members help with this count each year.

Feb 16–19 2007 – The Great Backyard Bird Count – More info on this in the next newsletter.

Very Late Gray Catbird

This Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) was found at Poplar Gap Park near Grundy on November 18th by Don Carrier and Roger Mayhorn. This is a new late date for this species within the county. The previous late date was October 31, 2005. That late bird was found at the home of the Mayhorns on Compton Mountain. This bird’s scientific name means “Little thicket dweller of Carolina”. This bird has also been known as The Black Mockingbird, the Black-capped Thrush, The Slate-colored Mockingbird, The Cat Flycatcher and The Chicken Bird. 

This juvenile Red-throated Loon (Gavia stellata) was photographed by Richard Kretz on South Holston Lake on November 24th. Richard found the bird after hearing that it had been sighted by some Bristol Birders. Richard was at the boat ramp not far from Musick’s Campground, when he spotted the bird on the water.  This bird is not common to the area and is a great find. This species normally winters on the Atlantic or Pacific coasts, but is occasionally sighted on inland bodies of water. This is our smallest loon. It measures only 24 – 27 inches long, and is the only species of loon that can leap directly into the air from water, and is the only species that can take off directly from land. Other loons require a running start on water, and can not get airborne from land at all.

Thanks to Ed and Mary Talbott for participating in the window watch on November 23rd. At their home they found 7 Blue Jays, 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker, 1 Carolina Chickadee, 2 Tufted Titmice, 12 American Goldfinches, 3 Mourning Doves, 2 Downy Woodpeckers and 1 male Cardinal.

The Mayhorns also participated and recorded 3 Mourning Doves, 1 Downy Woodpecker, 1 Carolina Chickadee, 1 Tufted Titmouse, 2 White-breasted Nuthatches, 2 Carolina Wrens, 4 White-throated Sparrows, 5 Dark-eyed Juncos, 2 Northern Cardinals, 2 Common Grackles, 5 House Finches, 2 American Goldfinches, 1 Cooper’s Hawk and 1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. 

While attending a conference in Williamsburg VA the week-end of November 18th, Richard Kretz took the opportunity to bird at the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, an excellent spot to see waterfowl on the coast. He also birded the Back Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Some of the interesting birds he found there were:  Ring-billed Gull, Herring Gull, Laughing Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Ruddy Turnstone, Purple Sandpiper, Black-bellied Plover, Dunlin, Greater Scaup, Sanderlings, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Great Heron, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Savannah Sparrow and Yellow-rumped Warbler.

During the past year the Mayhorns have had at least 30 hawk sightings in their yard. They have had Cooper’s, Sharp-shinned, Red-shouldered and Red-tailed. On November 5th a large Red-tailed flew into the yard followed by a Red-shouldered. The two stayed around for about and hour. Recently a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) has been coming daily to sit near the feeders (see photo) to watch and chase the birds. It seldom makes a kill there, but still persists. In the past couple of weeks Roger has started tossing it dead mice from a window. Roger traps the mice in an outbuilding, where he stores birdseed. The hawk has gotten used to these “flying mice”, and now watches for any movement at the window. On Thursday, December 7th, Roger had no mice when the hawk came. It sat and watched for awhile, then went under the shrubbery trying to flush birds. After having no luck with that it walked toward the house with its eye on the window. After getting below the window the hawk then flew from the ground up past the window and perched on the gutter just above the window. Its long tail was sticking down in front of the window. It was obviously looking for the source of the dead mice. After a few moments it flew to a tree in the yard, then gave chase to a passing crow and disappeared into the woods.

Rusty Blackbirds Back Again

In last month’s newsletter it was reported that several Rusty Blackbirds (Euphagus carolinus) had been seen in the area. Well, on December 4th another one showed up at the Mayhorns’ place on Compton Mt. This bird was with a small flock of Red-winged Blackbirds. It fed in the yard for about an hour, and then left the area.

This bird has also been known as the “Rusty Oriole “ or “Rusty Crow ”, even though this bird is much smaller than a crow. It is about the same size as a Red-winged Blackbird.

On November 5th two Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers (Sphyrapicus varius) came to the Mayhorns’ suet feeder, which actually holds a mixture of peanut butter, lard and oats. Since then one male has been coming back regularly to feed. This is the first time since the Mayhorns moved to Compton Mountain in 1972 that they have ever seen a sapsucker at their feeder, though they have seen them occasionally on their property. These birds get their name from tapping rings of holes in the bark of trees from which they then drink the sap. Some other woodpeckers have also been known to do this. 

On November 25th the three fellows in this photo, Richard Kretz, Roger Mayhorn and Don Carrier, birded Jewel Valley near Whitewood VA and along Rt. 638 leading to it. The first stop at an overgrown house site proved to be very productive with 5 species of sparrows being found feeding among the dried weed heads. The sparrow species were Field Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow and White-throated Sparrow. Other birds of interest were Eastern Bluebirds, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Pileated Woodpecker, Winter Wren and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. Richard mounted his camera on a tripod for the photo 

Caney Island Branch Birding

Ed & Michelle Talbott birded Caney Island Branch near their home at Weller Yard on November 18th. During their hike they found Fox, Swamp and White-throated Sparrows, as well as a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. More nature photos taken on their hike can be found at http://www.pbase.com/aquilaet/caney7

Ed has also posted more photos of the BCBC Sparrow Day on October 21st at the Raines home. These can be seen at http://www.pbase.com/aquilaet/raines

Tom Hunter of Lebanon, VA found a Green Heron (Butoides virescens) on Rt. 770 in Russell County on December 3rd, 2006. This is unusual, since Green Herons normally do not spend the winter this far north, and have usually gone south to Florida, Texas and Central America by this date. This bird’s scientific name comes from the work “Butor”, which means, “turning green”.

On the same outing Tom found 3 Loggerhead Shrikes, a species whose numbers are declining. On November 25th Tom had found 3 Loggerhead Shrikes on Clifton Farm Road. On the same date as the heron he found a Golden Eagle, a species that spends the winter in the area.

Don Carrier of Bristol took this photo of a Pine Warbler (Dendroica pinus) near the Netherlands Inn in Kingsport Tennessee on December 3rd. It was one of nine Pine Warblers in a small flock. If this were any other species of warbler in that area at this time of year excepting Yellow-rumps, which spend the winter here, this would be a really unusual find. However, the northern edge of the Pine Warbler’s winter range extends through Arkansas, Tennessee and South Carolina, but it is still a great find when there are nine in one flock.

This Savannah Sparrow appeared at the Mayhorns’ feeders on November 4th, 2006. This is the first recorded sighting of this species on the mountain. This bird can be distinguished from other sparrows by the yellow markings on the face, the bright white breast and the thin breast streaking. Roger Mayhorn attributes the sighting of this species and that of the Swamp Sparrow on the mountain to his efforts to increase good sparrow habitat on his property. He has been clearing some old fields of trees and shrubs, which allows the growth of plants like Goldenrod, Yellow Winged Stem (what some refer to as “stick weeds”) and other weedy plants, which bear seeds that sparrows prefer.

Northern Mockingbirds Becoming More Common

The Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) has been increasing in numbers within the county for the past several years. It was only June 29 of 2005 that the first confirmed nesting of this species within the county was documented. David & Susan Raines usually have mockingbirds around their property at the Breaks. Johnny& Betty Ratliff have them on their property at Little Prater near Grundy. The one in this photo was found in early November at the Mayhorns’ on Compton Mt, where the species had not been seen since the fall of 2005. This bird’s scientific name “Mimus polyglottos” refers to its ability to mimic or imitate other birds. Mockingbirds, catbirds and thrashers all belong to the same group of birds because of their ability to sound like other species or other animals. The mockingbird is a year-round resident in the area it inhabits.

Our smallest falcon, The American Kestrel (Falco sparverius), appeared in the yard of Ed & Michelle Talbott at Weller Yard on November 29th. Ed noticed the bird with its striking male plumage, as he was pulling into his driveway, and was able to watch it for a few minutes through binoculars. Kestrels are not common in the area, and this was one of a handful of sightings at the Talbot house. Kestrels prefer open grassy fields, where they hunt for insects and small rodents like mice and voles. 

Don Carrier, BCBC member from Bristol, took this photo of two Black-crowned Night Herons (Nycticorax nycticorax) on December 6 not far from his home. The bird in the foreground is a juvenile, that has not yet gotten its adult plumage. The one in back is an adult. This species gets its name from the fact that it is mainly active at night. It feeds on small fish, frogs, tadpoles, salamanders and Garter Snakes.  This species sometimes spends the winter in its breeding range.