2012 Club Activities

Interest in Birding Grows as Buchanan County Bird Club Adds to Membership

The Virginia Mountaineer

By Roger Mayhorn

The year 2012 was a good year for the Buchanan County Bird Club. Interest in the club and birding has grown with more members and more subscribers to the Buchanan County Bird Club listserve where interesting nature sightings and photos are posted for all to see. The club continued its meetings on the second Monday of each month at 6 p.m. at the Buchanan County Public Library. The meetings were and are free to anyone interested in nature.

More Bald Eagles were sighted last year in the county than in previous years, and Peregrine Falcons continue to be seen in the Breaks Park; it is believed that they are nesting there since adults and juveniles have been seen there. Bird club members, David and Susan Raines, saw both a Bald Eagle and a Golden Eagle in Tazewell on January 27. A flock of Double-crested Cormorants, a long-necked water bird usually found at the ocean or large freshwater Lakes and Rivers, was observed flying over the Breaks Park in September by club members, Roger Mayhorn and David Raines. At the same time in another part of the sky Mayhorn and Raines saw two Great Blue Herons, the large bluish-gray birds seen along the river, and a Great Egret, a large, white, wading bird, another unusual species for the area.

In October David Raines found a very rare Le Conte’s Sparrow at his home on Happy Hollow in the Breaks community. That sparrow species has been found only once before in the county, also by Raines the year before and in the same area. Both birds were found during fall migration as they were passing through, since that species does not nest within the county. In September Clarence Brown of Hurley found a Prothonotary Warbler on his property during migration. That is only the second sighting of that species in the county.

In April the Breaks Park hosted a National Migratory Bird Day, and members of the club participated by leading bird walks and presenting a program on migratory birds of the Breaks Park.

From April through August the club once again monitored and maintained more than seventy bluebird nest boxes in the Breaks community, at Keen Mountain Park on Keen Mountain and on Compton Mountain. Club members have been building nest boxes and helping out the bluebirds and other cavity nesting birds since 2003.

The bluebirds last year got off to a poor beginning when twenty dead nestlings were found in several of the boxes in April. The deaths were caused by several days of cold, rainy weather. The parent birds could not find enough food, and the young ones perished from starvation and cold. However, the bluebirds rebounded and nested again. The Early White Trail on Keen Mountain produced 96 young Eastern Bluebirds and twelve young Tree Swallows. Club member, Marie Miller, monitored that trail. The Johnnie and Betty Ratliff Trail in the Breaks area, monitored by David Raines, produced 92 young bluebirds and 5 Tree Swallows. The Roger and Lynda Mayhorn Trail on Compton Mountain, monitored by the Mayhorns, fledged 94 young bluebirds, 20 young Tree Swallows and two Carolina Chickadees. Since 2003 the club’s bluebird trails have fledged 2024 Eastern Bluebirds, 425 Tree Swallows, 179 Carolina Chickadees and 17 House Wrens.

Bird club members, Johnnie and Betty Ratliff, who live at the mouth of Little Prater in Grundy are hosts to the largest Purple Martin colony in Southwest Virginia. They have been Purple Martin “landlords” for years, providing martin houses and gourds for the largest swallow in the U.S. to nest in. Purple Martins catch thousands of flying insects each year. In 2012 nearly 200 Purple Martins nested at the Ratliffs’ home. When all of their young left the nest in July there was a flock of nearly 600 martins in the air at one time. The birds leave in late July or early August to fly to South America where they spend the winter. They arrive back in our part of the U.S. in late March or early April.

On Saturday, September 15, the Mayhorns hosted their 8th annual Warbler Day at their home on Compton Mountain. Nineteen birders from Virginia and Tennessee converged on the Mayhorn home to watch the many colorful species of birds pass through their property throughout the day. Sixty-eight different species were counted with hundreds of birds being observed. Twenty of the sixty-eight were colorful warblers, small, active songbirds, many of which do not nest in the area, but just pass through in the spring and fall during the annual migration. The highlight of the day was a strikingly beautiful Mourning Warbler that dropped down to drink and bathe in the Mayhorn’s yard stream, which was built for that purpose. The Mourning Warbler is a greenish-yellow bird with a dark gray hood from which it gets its name. It is rarely seen in Buchanan County or in surrounding areas.

David and Susan Raines hosted their annual Sparrow Day at their home in the Breaks area. Fifteen birders were present to enjoy the birds, the good food and the Raines hospitality. Many sparrow species migrate through their property and surrounding area going south in October and November. Forty-four bird species were found on this day with the first species being a Great Horned Owl, the largest owl in the area, with a length of up to 25 inches and a possible 60 inch wingspan. It was heard near dawn by David Raines.

On November 5 Roger Mayhorn was filling his bird feeders on Compton Mountain when several Pine Siskins came very close to him. Pine Siskins are small finches that sometimes come down from Canada during winter. Mayhorn held out a cup of seeds and within half a minute had birds sitting on his hands, his arm and even his shoulder. Pine Siskins are known to be very unafraid of humans. Mayhorn has fed several bird species from his hand over the years. He says, “ It is always a strange feeling to have a wild creature come to you on its own and be completely trusting of you.” Mayhorn keeps records each fall of the different bird species and the numbers of birds that pass through his property on Compton Mountain. From August 22 to October 15 forty-four different species were found at his home. Four hundred twenty-two individual warblers were recorded.

Buchanan County Bird Club members made a trip to Bluestone Lake near Hinton, WV on November 11 to join members of the Bibbee Nature Club of Bluefield and members of the Russell County Bird Club for a day of birding for waterfowl and eagles. The nineteen birders found forty-eight species with fifteen of those being waterfowl. An adult Bald Eagle was seen perched near a small lake filled with waterfowl. Even though Bald Eagles feed mainly on fish they are known to take ducks and other water birds on occasion.

Christmas Bird Counts (CBC’s) are held each December all over the world to see how winter birds are doing. Birders search for as many birds as they can find in one day inside a fifteen mile diameter circle. This past year Buchanan County Bird Club members participated in three CBC’s, the Breaks Park CBC, the Buchanan County CBC and the Russell County CBC. It was Russell County’s seventeenth annual CBC and sixty-three species were counted. The Buchanan County CBC was started only three years ago by members of the Buchanan County Bird Club. In 2012 forty-three species were counted in a fifteen mile circle stretching from the coke ovens to Jewel Valley.

In February of 2013 members of the Buchanan County Bird Club made their annual trip to Burkes Garden, Virginia’s highest valley, to look for both Bald and Golden Eagles. They found Bald Eagles nesting there and Golden Eagles and Rough-legged Hawks that came south to the valley to spend the winter.