Area Birders, The first Clinch Mt Trails Migratory Birding Festival took place on Saturday, 5/14/05, and it was a smashing success even with other events taking place in the surrounding area. 31 people came out to do the 4 bird walks and 81 species were counted. Bird walks took place at Hungry Mother Park, Saltville, Clinch Mt Wildlife Management Area and at Raven Ridge Bed and Breakfast and Campground at Hayter's Gap on Clinch Mt. This event will be repeated in September on the week-end of the 17th and 18th, where hopefully, even more birders will come out to enjoy the fun and the birds. While my wife Lynda, and I were in Saltville, Helen Barbrow was kind enough to show us the Great Blue Heron Rookery there with the young on the nests. I was able to take a few photos. Three of them can be seen at http://users.mikrotec.com/mayhorn/BIMG/SaltvilleRook/SaltvilleRookP.htm While observing the nests I watched an adult Great Blue fly in carrying nesting material, but instead of flying to the large Sycamore tree, where the other nests are located, it flew to the mountainside just across the road and away from the river where it disappeared into the trees. I don't understand why the bird was carrying nesting material this late in the season. I suppose it could have been a young bird practicing nest building, or maybe there are more nests on the mountain out of sight above the road and this bird was doing some late repairs. Enjoy the birds, Roger Mayhorn Compton Mt Buchanan County ************************************************* BRISTOL BIRDS NET LIST Bristol Birds Net Photo Gallery located at: http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jwcoffeyy/album?.dir=/efd5 This is a regional birding list sponsored by the Bristol Bird Club to facilitate communications between birders and bird clubs of Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. -------------------------------------------------- You are subscribed to Bristol-Birds. To post to this mailing list, simply send an email to: bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe, send an email to bristol-birds-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the one word 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. -------------------------------------------------- Wallace Coffey, Moderator wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (423)764-****