FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] 15th Annual BBC Burke's Garden Field Trip

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

The 15th Annual Bristol Bird Club's  Burke's Garden Golden Eagle Field Trip
will get underway from the ETSU-Bristol Campus at 7 a.m. this Saturday, Feb. 
12.  Wallace Coffey will meet birders in Bristol.
Don Holt will meet anyone wanting to meet at the north Johnson City K-Mart on 
State of Franklin at 6:15 a.m., Saturday.  That group will then drive to 
Bristol to meet the ETSU-Bristol Campus group by 7 a.m.

We will meet other birders at the Abingdon First Bank & Trust parking lot on
U.S. 19 just off West Main at 7:30 a.m. 

Our final check for meeting birders will come between 8 a.m. to  8:15 a.m. at 
the Food City Store just off  U.S. 19 at Lebanon, VA. in Russell County.

We will stop for our last break in Tazewell and grab a quick bite at Hardee's 
where we sometimes have other birders waiting.  Some years we have had birders 
from the Bibee Bird Club of West Virginia join us.  We will be at Hardee's for 
about 30 minutes for a light breakfast stop, bathroom break and waiting on 
others.  We then head over the mountain into Burke's Garden.  

Carpool arrangments may be made at the meeting sites as needed.  

Dress warm for Burke's Garden and plan for very cold wind.

Dave Worley of the BBC will lead the birding trip in Burke's Garden.
 
This has long been our most popular fieldtrip with many birders attending.
The garden is a high-elevation valley at 3,000 feet and the windchill  is
often brutal in winter.

In some years we have had as many as four Golden Eagles and three
Rough-legged Hawks. A Long-eared Owl was found dead hanging in a wire fence one 
winter.  We may also expect Red-headed Woodpeckers, migrating
Red-tailed Hawks, Wilson Snipe, Green-winged Teal, Pintail and goldeneye
have been found.  In addition we usually find several Fox Squirrels.

A store in the valley will provide us with lunch items and a warm and clean 
bathroom. Our usual plan of action is to stop at the store in mid-morning, 
leave our individual lunch orders and go back at noon to find everything ready, 
hot and delicious.  The store provides a warm stove and friendly atmosphere for 
birders.

Of extreme importance is the need for very warm 
clothing, including gloves, hats, scarfs, boots and such.  Even when the
temperature is 40 or 50 degrees the wind can be very cold and difficult. 

If you have any question e-mail Wallace Coffey or
telephone (423) 764-3958.  My enroute phone number will be car phone 
423-335-4095.

If you have a family (FM) two-way radio or two bring them along for car-to-car
communications.  We will be operating on Channel 10 with no subchannel.  This 
is of importance because often the trail of cars along the valley roads can 
stretch almost one half mile back and good birds up front and along the road 
can be called back or ahead as needed so everyone can see.

There is no hiking on this trip.  All of the vast and
beautiful valley is very large farms with few houses and private land. Many of 
the old homes are beautiful.  The church and unique headstones are historic.

We will depart in mid to late afternoon.

A fun feature for several birders is to stop at the amazing U.S. Post Office in 
Burke's Garden.  You cannot imagine anything like this in modern civilization.  
There we purchase post cards and mail ourselves a reminder of the weather, 
birds and fun of the day.  The cards are hand canceled and arrive home in 
several days. 

Let me know of your plans.  By knowing your plans, we can watch for you and 
make sure we are picking everyone up along the way.

Let's go birding.......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN



*************************************************
       BRISTOL BIRDS NET LIST
Bristol Birds Net Photo Gallery located at:
http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jwcoffeyy/album?.dir=/efd5

This is a regional birding list sponsored by the
Bristol Bird Club to facilitate communications 
between birders and bird clubs of Southwest Virginia
and Northeast Tennessee.  
--------------------------------------------------
You are subscribed to Bristol-Birds.
To post to this mailing list, simply send an email
to: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send
an email to bristol-birds-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with
the one word 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
--------------------------------------------------
       Wallace Coffey, Moderator
         wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
           (423)764-****