[TN-Bird] New Steele Creek Park Naturalist !
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "TN-birds" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2005 22:06:34 -0400
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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