[Bristol-Birds] New Steele Creek Park Naturalist !

Hi Birders:

It is with pride that members of the Bristol Bird Club learn that our youngest 
member has been accepted to the position of "Junior Naturalist" at the Steele 
Creek Park Nature Center in Bristol Tennessee (Sullivan County).
                                                                                
                                

Charlie Parker, our 13-year-old birder, began his new duities at the park in 
mid-July, following an application and interview process with staff from the 
nature center.  He has already logged nearly 20 hours of volunteer assistance 
to park naturalist programs and nature center acitivities.

"I was very excited about becoming a Junior Naturalist," Parker said with a 
smile.  "I really looked forward to working here.  I hope to one day join the 
paid staff like Chris O'Bryan has done.  I have mostly enjoyed being able to 
work behind the scene, inside  the nature center operation."

He has not found a shortage of duites and activites.

Just last week he worked along side park staff in a turtle trapping project 
conducted by a King College student.  He was able to remove from a net trap a 
captured Red-eared Slider that was shared with youth participating in the 
park's nature camp.   He was on board a park boat when a Spinny Soft-shelled 
Turtle was captured in a research net.

In addition to helping fill a bird feeder, he has also helped with putting 
together an animal skelton display, gone in a stream to net fish, hiked Hemlock 
Trail to get better orientation to the park, worked on new signage for display 
tanks in the nature center public display gallery, is learning the routine and 
feeding proportions for live animals held at the center and helped clean tanks 
and cages.

He says his best bird seen in the park was a night-heron which flew low over 
the Steele Creek Park Lake, Monday, but not close enough to determine which 
species.

Parker has frequently posted his bird findings on both TN-Birds Net and the 
local listserve.

He has expressed an interest in eventually designing and implementing his own 
research in the park.  That will come when he gets a better understanding of 
the park operations and needed research problems.

Meanwhile, naturalist Kevin Elam, who manages the nature center, is pleased 
with having Parker as a regular volunteer and says the newest naturalist is 
doing a good job. 

Parker has been birding for several years and is well known to many area 
birders for his keen identification skills and active field efforts, which 
among other skills, have included helping Charlie Musie in the bird banding 
lanes near Knoxville.  Last winter he attended the Tennessee Ornithological 
Society Winter Meeting at Dayton, TN.  TWRA State Ornithologist Mike Roedel 
presented Parker with a copy of the National Geographical Society bird field 
guide for having been the youngest participant at the TOS Winter Meeting.

Parker is fast becoming an active and valued member of the Bristol Bird Club.

He is the son of Bob and Ellen Parker of Piney Flats, TN.   

In addition to birding,  he regularly goes big game hunting with his 
grandfather near Holston Mountain in Sullivan Co.  He already owns his own 
equipment, including a deer rifle.  He has completed the Tennessee Wildlife 
Resources Agency hunter safety and youth course  and earned a TWRA youth 
boating permit.  The family has a summer home on Watauga Lake and Charlie 
fishes there and on the South Fork Holston River tailwaters.   He and his 
family often use their two boats at Watauga Lake in Carter Co.

Let's go birding......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN

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