FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Re: Lifetime of bird banding concludes.

["Ken Hale" <khale@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Wow,  I'm not going to ask you to reconsider your decision; I will simply trust 
your judgment that the time is proper.

I learned many valuable skills during my bird banding days with you.  Critical 
observation probably being the better of the bunch.  I often wondered if I 
could have made more money building hawk traps than practicing law!!  

Your note brought back a flood of great memories.  Suffice it to say, it was a 
lot of fun.  

Ken Hale
Bristol, TN
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Wallace Coffey 
  To: Bristol-birds 
  Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 4:45 AM
  Subject: [Bristol-Birds] Lifetime of bird banding concludes.


  At the end of this month,  I will close my U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service 
federal migratory bird banding 
  permit.  This will conclude 45 years of banding which began March 20, 1961 
under Dr. Lee R. Herndon of 
  Elizabethton, TN who sponsored my application and trained me.  

  My federal permit no. 9074 is one of the lowest banding permit numbers in the 
nation.  Bob Sargent, 
  who certifies banders and is one of the leading banders in the south, told me 
recently he had never seen a 
  banding permit number with as few as four digits in length.  Dr. Herndon was 
6980 and I not
  only had the good experience of his being my mentor but I also shared that 
number as a subpermit for three
  years as no. 6980-G.

  During the late 1970's and early 1980's I had five federal subpermits under 
my master permit:

  Bert Hale 1978-1984 (permit 9074-A) lives near Bluff City and is a former 
president of the Bristol Bird Club.
      He is on Bristol Birds Net.

  Ken Hale  1978 to 1983 (permit 9074-B) former turkey and deer trapper and 
wildlife tech with the Tennessee
      Wildlife Resources Agency and later manager of the Virginia Game 
Commission's Clinch Mountain Wildlife
      Management Area.  He has a degree in wildlife management from Tennessee 
Tech.  He practices law in Bristol.
      Ken is on Bristol Birds Net.

  Bob Duncan 1978 to 1980 (permit 9074-C)  Currently the Chief of the Wildlife 
Division of the Virginia Game
      Commission in Richmond, former supervising wildlife biologist for 
Southwest Virginia and former region
      research biologist with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency in East 
Tennessee. 
     
  Dr. Tom Laughlin  1978 to 1984 (permit 9074-D) a faculty member of the 
Department of Biological Sciences
      at East Tennessee State University.  He earned his Ph.D. at Virginia 
Tech.  He is from Kingsport.  He is
      on Bristol Birds Net.

  Rick Phillips  1978 to 1984 (permit 9074-E) Lives at Kingsport and a member 
of Bristol Birds Net.  A former
      research bird biologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Southern Forest 
Experimental Station at Clemson. 
      Rick is on Bristol Birds Net.

  With that great team,  here are just some of the high profile and curious 
species we have banded.  The numbers
  of each species banded follows the names of the birds:

  Ring-necked Pheasant 5 (young from a wild nesting population in Shady Valley)
  Common Loon 1
  Pied-billed Grebe 1
  Double-crested Cormorant 1
  Green Heron 3
  Northern Harrier 2
  Sharp-shinned Hawk 3
  Cooper's Hawk 11
  Red-shouldered Hawk 2
  Broad-winged Hawk 2
  Red-tailed Hawk 12
  Rough-legged Hawk 2
  Golden Eagle 2
  American Kestrel  264 (Not a typo.  We captured that many during winter field 
efforts and from nests).
  Common Moorhen  2 (both in Bristol VA)
  American Woodcock 3
  Ring-billed Gull 3
  Barn Owl 8
  Eastern Screech Owl  83
  Great Horned Owl  16
  Barred Owl  2
  N. Saw-whet Owl 1 (trapped with Rick Knight at Winged Deer Park in Johnson 
City / his band used)
  Chuck-wills-widow (with Herbie Nunley near Bluff City)
  Whip-poor-will  1
  Allen's Hummingbird 1(arranged capture and banding first ever Virginia record 
with Rick Knight, Richard Lewis, Dr. Van Remsen)
  Belted Kingfisher 2
  Red-headed Woodpecker  1
  Eastern Phoebe  145
  Loggerhead Shrike  19
  American Crow 13
  Bank Swallow 1  (captured from nest at Austin Springs, Boone Lake)
  Barn Swallow ~100
  Brown-headed Cowbird  62
  Purple Finch  493
  Pine Siskins  420
  Evening Grosbeak  93

  I did not band the Common Loon, Double-crested Cormorant or Northern Harrier. 
 Those were banded by the subpermits
  under my permit and with my bands.  I banded all the rest of the species 
listed but obviously my subpermits either helped
  me or banded some of the birds on their own.

  Larry McDaniel and I discovered a Red-necked Grebe at Elizabethton in the 
90's and Rick Knight came to help capture the bird and
  he brought a band and the bird was banded and released.  Likewise, Rick 
banded a nest of Cooper's Hawks that Larry and I discovered and Richard Lewis 
banded a nest of Cooper's Hawk found near Musick's Campground.

  For several years I was a volunteer bander for the Virginia Game Commission 
helping trap and band waterfowl at Abingdon.  We mostly took Wood Ducks.  I 
also did the same for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency at David Crocket 
Lake in Greene County.  Ken Hale trapped and banded Ruffed Grouse and Wild 
Turkey as part of his duties and none of these numbers are reflected above.   
Along with many others in the region,  we have joined hummingbird banders to 
capture Allen's Hummingbird in
  Johnson City and Rufous Hummingbirds all over the area.

  Because of the high profile species, we have a very large number of 
recoveries, returns, recaptures and such of both birds we have banded and those 
banded by others throughout the eastern states.

  I have never been a high-volume bander like a Rick Knight, Richard Lewis or 
Rad Mayfield.  I mainly banded raptors and some winter finches.  High numbers 
of Eastern Phoebes reflect a two year nesting study in the region.

  Nevertheless,  I have a long list of woodpeckers, flycatchers, vireos, jays, 
swallows, chickadee, titmice, nuthatches, creepers, wrens, kinglets, doves, 
cuckoos, hummingbirds, swifts, nuthatches, thrushes and thrashers, warblers, 
vireos, sparrows, blackbirds and finches which have been banded at my fall 
banding stations and yard feeders and at the homes of cooperators.

  I cannot mention each and every person who banded with me or helped me during 
nearly five decades of banding.  I probably do not have a list of them all.

  I am relative certain I banded the young from a nest of Common Ravens we 
climbed to twice at Pigeon Rock, Corn Valley, in Russell County, Va in the late 
60's but I was not able to lay my hands on the data so I chose to leave that 
species out of the list.  I have many good colored slide photos of that nest 
with both eggs and young.  There were many other times when we had Ospreys in 
captivity or found a nest of either the Black Vulture or Turkey Vulture where 
we were not able to band the young.  Vultures may not be banded because of 
problems caused by the bands to their legs.  I banded local breeding 
hummingbirds many times before a special permit was required to band hummers.

  Thanks to everyone who has made this journey so rewarding and so enjoyable.  
There finally comes a time when my energy, health and other obligations make it 
no longer practical to continue being a bander.  It is a lot of work and 
responsibility.  It is also great fun and very challenging  --- especially the 
winter raptors, as many of you know.

  Let's go birding......

  Wallace Coffey
  Bristol, TN