[bcbirdclub] Re: Roger and Lynda Make the News
- From: "Roger Mayhorn" <rmayhorn@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Jerry Thornhill" <mjt@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "BCBC Listserve" <bcbirdclub@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2009 21:15:48 -0400
Hey Jerry, after having read your message earlier I have been out all day
searching for Kirtland's Warblers for Warbler Day. I now have 3 tied up so they
will be here for the big day, so it looks like we are good to go. One has your
name on it. Just don't tell anyone that I have them tied up. I wouldn't want
people to know the real secret to so many warblers on this mountain.
Roger Mayhorn
----- Original Message -----
From: Jerry Thornhill
To: bcbirdclub@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 7:12 AM
Subject: [bcbirdclub] Re: Roger and Lynda Make the News
That's fantastic. Thanks to Don for finding and sharing. Now Roger, the
pressure's on for a Kirtland's on Warbler Day!
Jerry
-----Original Message-----
From: bcbirdclub-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:bcbirdclub-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Don Carrier
Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 5:43 AM
To: bcbirdclub@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [bcbirdclub] Roger and Lynda Make the News
The article below appeared in the Aug 28, 2009 edition of the Roanoke Times.
Don Carrier
Buchanan County birdsongs go bigtime
By Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor
A few years ago I wrote about Roger Mayhorn's amazing mountaintop home in
Buchanan County.
I think of Roger especially during fall and spring migration, when his tally
of yard birds posted on Internet birding lists is enough to turn the average
birder pea-green with envy.
Roger and his wife Lynda have even seen the threatened Kirtland's warbler, a
rare breeder in the jack pine forests of Michigan. Even most Michigan birders
haven't seen the Kirtland's.
When Roger reported it passing through his Compton Mountain yard on
migration, I confess that I briefly wanted to strangle him. Some guys have all
the luck.
I'm not the only one impressed by the Mayhorns' splendid locale for birds.
When I got my copy of Donald Kroodsma's new "Birdsong by the Seasons: A Year of
Listening to Birds," I was somehow not surprised to see that the ornithologist
had devoted an entire chapter to a day spent listening to birds around chez
Mayhorn.
The Mayhorns, who are retired teachers, were unaware that Kroodsma had
spotlighted his day on their land in the new book until I told them earlier
this week.
"It was during the 2005 Virginia Society of Ornithology meeting," Mayhorn
recalled. "I had to host bird walks. But he'd heard our place was good for
birds and he came up and asked me if he could spend the day recording."
"Birdsong by the Seasons" is the record of an entire year of songs and calls
of birds across America, from New Year's Day through the winter solstice.
It was the first weekend in May when Kroodsma got to Buchanan County, related
in a chapter called "Two Virginia Mimics: Brown Thrasher, White-eyed Vireo."
Although I knew both birds are mimics, I was amazed to discover from just how
many other species the thrasher and vireo assemble their repertoire.
As he recorded the thrasher in the Mayhorns' yard, Kroodsma heard it imitate
a Carolina chickadee, an eastern meadowlark, plus robin, red-winged blackbird,
red-bellied woodpecker, purple martin and others.
The white-eye rattled off a wood thrush's "whit whit whit" alarm call, robin,
eastern towhee, blue jay, Carolina wren and others.
Interestingly, the vireo steals only the calls of other birds, not their
songs. (Bird songs, as opposed to calls, are mostly made by males during
breeding season.)
Bird notes
This is the week when most birders begin to see the flying circuses of
migrating common nighthawks at dusk. For the past two years I've seen my first
nighthawk around Aug. 17 or 18. But this season, as of Monday of this week, I
was still batting zero.
The best place to see nighthawks is open pastures or meadows. But they also
hang around shopping center parking lots and ballparks where evening lights
attract flying insects. And don't forget the even bigger show when broadwinged
hawks start to move south. The height of the broadwing migration through
southwest Virginia is a roughly two-week period beginning around September 10.
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