[Bristol-Birds] Historical Snippet - May 8, 1976
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:13:04 -0400
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
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