BBC Snippet Bird lovers In the Washington County, Va. and local area got a shot of adrenalin in their nature-loving spirits May 7-8-9, 1976 when the 700 - member Virginia Society of Ornithology held its annual spring meeting In Abingdon. The net result was the chartering of a new-chapter affiliation for Bristol and increased enthusiasm among area birders. For more than 25 years the Twin Cities had been the home of an active chapter of the Tennessee Ornithological Society. It was steeped in tradition and their outstanding contributions to the community and the hobby of birding had been many. On May 8, the two cities probably claimed the distinction of being the only community in the nation in two states with a club affiliated with both states. BRISTOL TOS would long remain the cornerstone name in the community because of its established leadership. But there were a number of birders in Washington County and Bristol who wished to have a closer relationship with persons of a kindred nature from their own state. Many wanted to get involved in the Virginia activities as a club and as individuals on an active basis. There was even a number of Tennesseans who would enjoy a close relationship with the Virginia society just as many Virginians had been members of the Tennessee Ornithological Society for 26 years. BRISTOL promised to be an active group of bird students who would not only take part in the usual seasonal counts but planning bird study workshops, regional forays, sponsoring a lookout for the annual hawk migration, involved in banding and nesting studies as well as area wide population distribution studies of birds. Today, in another millennium, now 32 years later, all of that has been accomplished and much more. The pace continues. The chairman of the group, for purposes of chartering the VSO membership, had been Tom Wilson. Other committee members were Joseph W. Jackson (a biology instructor at Sullins College was heading up the research and field studies committee) with John Wright of Abingdon as chairman of field trips and forays. Bristol's Diane Wilson headed finances and records for the club. Wallace Coffey did the footwork with VSO. TOM WILSON was an executive at a major pharmaceutical company in Bristol. Jackson would become internationally involved with pharmaceuticals and continue on with Smith Kline Beecham. John Wright eventually moved to North Carolina to teach and later served as one of the cornerstone members of the Carolina Bird Club and served as its president. Diane Wilson eventually moved to Greenville, SC and today owns and manages the city's largest reality broker. DR. RICHARD H. PEAKE of Clinch Valley College at Wise, received a lot of credit for the outstanding Southwest Virginia VSO meeting which was headquartered at Abingdon's Martha Washington Inn. As state president of VSO, Peake had much of the responsibility for the event, which hosted 120 birders from the ocean to me mountains. The smooth-flowing event was sponsored by the Clinch Valley Bird Club of Tazewell, Cumberland Bird Club of Wise and Marion Bird Club. There was also a new club at Nickelsville in Scott County and the group was known as the Clinch Mountain Bird Club. In addition to the regular business sessions, there were field strips to the higher elevations as well as the lowland river valley areas of the three Holston River forks. More than a hundred different kinds of birds were found in the area with the most unusual report being two Golden Eagles sighted near the Mouth of Wilson, Va. on Friday afternoon by Floy Burford of Norfolk, Virginia Hank of Norfolk and Gisela Grim of Chesapeake. Some trips were made both Friday and Saturday nights to the Whitetop Mountain area in hopes of locating the very rare Saw-whet Owl which was in the high Canadian-type forest. The owl could not be located. FLAT WOODS JOB CORPS provided a key contribution to the meeting. The Coeburn, Va. center used one of its buses to help transport the visitors into the Jefferson National Forest area. Saturday's schedule included a technical paper session: SONG BIRD PREFERENCE AND UTILIZATION OF FOOD , Emily Grey, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. VERTEBRATE POPULATIONS OF SOUTHWESTERN VIRGINIA STRIP MINES, Richard Davis, Department of Biology, Clinch Valley College of The University of Virginia. VOCAL ASPECTS OF COURTSHIP BEHAVIOR AND NESTING DEVELOPMENT IN THE COMMON RAVEN, Richard N. Conner, Department of Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. QUANTITATIVE STUDY OF PROPORTIONS OF BODY WEIGHT, FOOD, AND PELLET WEIGHT; BODY TEMPERATURE, AMBIENT TEMPERATURE, AND FOOD CONSUMPTION OF A SCREECH OWL, Brent Rowell and Wallace Coffey. PAST AND PRESENT OSPREY BREEDING POPULATIONS IN VIRGINIA, Christopher H. Stinson and Dr. Mitchell A. Byrd, Department of Biology, College of William & Mary. VOCAL MIMICRY IN THE WHITE-EYED VIREO, Dr. Curtis S. Adkisson, Department of Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. OBSERVATIONS OF WOODCOCK TWILIGHT BEHAVIOR DURING SPRING MIGRATION, R.W. Schamerhorn, a junior high student from Lynchburg. COMPARATIVE ECOLOGY OF THE BLACK AND TURKEY VULTURE, Irvine D. Prather, Department of Biology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. DR. RALPH W. SCHREIBER was the main speaker for the meeting and gave an illustrated lecture on his work with behavior and ecology of Brown Pelicans in Florida. He worked three years with the Smithsonian Institution's Pacific Ocean Biological Survey Program and had a number of publications both popular and technical on Pacific seabirds and on his more recent Florida studies. A SIMILAR statewide meeting of birders was announced by the Bristol Bird Club for May 28-29-30 in Shady Valley, Johnson County, Tn. in cooperation with the Tennessee Ornithological Society and would be the annual summer foray to determine the bird populations and distribution in Tennessee. Birders from Memphis to Bristol would to take part along with a number of the Virginia Society of Ornithology members. from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club