BBC Snippets

March 11, 1981

Mr. Ken Hale
Route 3, Box 218
Saltville, VA 24370

Dear Ken:

Congratulations on your retirement from "big tree climbing" in our continuing effort to band Great Horned Owl young from their nests. The last nine years of your service have been valuable to me and I hope a good and enjoyable learning experienced for you.

When you climbed 65 feet and 6 inches to the nest of the Painter Springs pair in Sullivan County, TN last Saturday, it marked your seventh climb to a horned owl nest and ended an era of nest climbing without a fall or injury -- am amazing record !

My records show your first climb to the Silver Grove pair near your home in Sullivan County on March 10, 1973. You have climbed 366 feet and spent 12 hours and 52 minutes above the ground at Great Horned Owls during seven climbs to six different nests. Your record climb was 77 feet at Cedar Creek in Bristol, TN on March 10, 1978. That tops my best climb of 66 feet and five inches with the Painter Springs pair on January 18, 1967 when I gave up owl nest climbing at the age of 27.

Thanks again for your many and successful efforts -- you never once turned away from a high nest.

Sincerely,

Wallace Coffey