[Bristol-Birds] BBC acquires Russell Field Records for SW VA.

  • From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:34:42 -0400

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. 






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