[Bristol-Birds] Larry McDaniel to join Nature Center staff

From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 20:20:15 -0400
Bristol Area Birders:

 

Larry McDaniel, a long-time leader of the Bristol Bird Club, has been
selected by

the Bristol Tennessee Department of Leisure Services to join the staff of
the

Steele Creek Nature Center.  He begins work Thursday, June 8.

 

He fills a naturalist position vacancy recently

created by the departure of Justin Moore who

has been hired by the Virginia State

Parks System as a ranger in costal Virginia.

 

The position was first held by Don Holt, an

educator-naturalist with the University of Tennessee's

Greeneville 4-H Camp and an active contributor to

Bristol Birds Net.

 

Larry makes his home in Johnson City.  He is retired

from the U.S. Postal Service.  He has a real estate 

license and recently owned a frame shop.

 

He has been studying birds and other nature subjects

at Steele Creek for more than a decade.  Larry has been a regular volunteer
field trip

leader at the park for most of that time and also a member and volunteer
with the

Friends of Steele Creek Nature Center and Park.   

 

He has also been active with the Friends of Roan Mountain and with a friends
group

Johnson City's Winged Deer Park where he has often led public naturalist
activities.

His efforts have twice earned him annual awards from the Johnson City Parks

and Recreation Department at their public appreciation banquets.

 

He moved to Bristol Tennessee in July 1993 from Tampa, FL where he was a
postal

worker and took advantage of an opening as a letter carrier in Bristol.

 

His vast experience with nature activities include years of leading field
trips at the 

Mount Rogers Naturalist Rally and Roan Mountain Naturalist Rallies.  

 

He was a founding member of the Butternut Naturalist Club which was the
foundation

for what is known today as the popular Butternut Yahoo Group, created and
moderated

by Don Holt. 

 

Larry served three terms as president of BBC.  He also was active as a
contributing

columnist for the BBC newsletter The Eagle with his column "Bird Droppings"
which 

was a compilation of outstanding region birding records.  He also maintained
the

BBC Calendar of Events, which was published in the newsletter.  He was
elected the

club secretary for one year before election as vice-president in 2000-2001.
He still

serves as V-P.  In that capacity he serves as the club program chair.

 

Larry has served on the board of directors of both the Virginia Society of
Ornithology

and the Tennessee Ornithological Society.

 

He has a vast experience as a Florida birder and also birding most of the
U.S. as well

as pelagic trips and Costa Rico.  His life list total is one of the best
among all birders

of the region.  He was the first person named Bird of the Year in the
region.  His 

hawk watching experience extends from his earliest days at Hawk Mountain, PA
as 

a young birder to countless days at Mendota, VA where he has become a
regular

and familiar face.

 

His naturalist interests have also included butterflies, odonates,
wildflowers, trees,

mammals and amphibians.

 

In recent years he has been an active member of the Lee & Lois Herndon TOS

Chapter at Elizabethton, where he also served as an officer and program
chair.

 

He is married to Dr. Janet Brown, a Johnson City ophthalmologist.

 

Let's go birding..

 

Wallace Coffey

Bristol, TN
[Bristol-Birds] Larry McDaniel to join Nature Center staff

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