[Bristol-Birds] Bristol Bird Club Reschedules Burkes Garden Field Trip for Feb. 24

At last evening's BBC meeting, members decided to schedule the Burke's
Garden field for Feb. 24.  It was postponed due to snowy weather from the
original date of Feb 17.  Below is a paraphrase of the announcement released
last week.

 

The 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. 24. We will meet birders in Bristol at ETSU Bristol at 7:00 AM.   

 

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.

 

This has long been our most popular field trip with many birders 

attending. The garden is a high-elevation valley at 3,000 feet and the 

windchill  is often brutal in winter.

 

Two weeks ago, the Russell County Club had five Golden Eagles and five 

Rough-legged Hawks. A Long-eared Owl was found dead hanging in a wire 

fence one winter.  We may also expect Loggerhead Shrike, 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 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. 

 

Mary Erwin

Kingsport TN

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