BBC ACQUIRES LONG-DESIRED RUSSELL RECORDS After a year of discussions and a month of further communication, today the Bristol Bird Club received some of the region's most valuable and important bird records from the earliest years in Southwest Virginia. The BBC Archives now contain the early field records and notes from the birding experiences made in the 1940-1950 era of Stephen M. Russell, for whom the club is named. They contain his ledger sheets for many years of birding throughout Washington County, VA. Of much significance, is meticulous notations and extensive details of birds by altitudinal distribution from birding trips and camping trips to Whitetop Mountain and Mount Rogers -- the state's two highest peaks. These records provide not only history of what Russell did but also a unique close-up snapshot of species, populations and distributions. His summation of species from the Whitetop- Mount Rogers Christmas Bird Counts not only listed species but actual elevation and range of elevation, by peaks, for each species. Russell earned his Ph.D. in biology and ornithology under Dr. George Lowery at LSU and retired a few years ago from his position as an ornithologist at the University of Arizona. He was author of the American Ornithologists' Union's first monograph. Dr. Russell was a charter member of the Bristol Bird Club in March 1950. He had sent BBC a page or two of his field notes which include the first birds ever recorded at South Holston Lake when the reservoir was impounded. They include observations which appear to be from the Spring Creek Embayment which is observed from Musick's Campground. The arrival of some of Dr. Russell's most detailed and extensive notes and records from this region were donated to the BBC archives by Dr. David W. Johnston of Fairfax Station, VA. He had been entrusted with the records for years. It has been agreed that BBC will include them in the club archives and eventually deposit the records in the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University. Johnston, who authored The History of Ornithology in Virginia, published by the University of Virginia Press in 2003, has been an acquaintance of BBC's curator for the past decade. He was a member of the Department of Zoology, University of Florida, editor of Bird-Banding and Ornithological Monographs, ecology program director of the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., a project director at the National Academy of Sciences and consultant to the World Bank and World Wildlife Fund. He held a leading role in the Florida Ornithological Society, becoming its president in 1973. Russell's field ledgers are recorded in a notebook which includes probably every species for which he had records 60 years ago while growing up in Southwest Virginia. His records not only included the high mountains of the area but also many records from Stone Mill Marsh which was one of Southwest Virginia's most famous and significant bird habitats until drained by the Town of Abingdon. At first brush, one finds his record for the King Rail at the famed Abingdon marsh. It's a species that nested many years ago in Western Virginia. All of the carefully-kept ledger pages were scribed in his handwriting and he has signed his name inside the front. Most of the remaining pages were typewritten in neat columns. Many of the earliest waterfowl and shorebird records known to exist for Southwest Virginia are included. The BBC archives now include an historic treasure. .