BBC Snippets

Kenn Kaufman's name and image as a birder of almost epic proportions was a household handle for anyone who took birding very seriously.

During the 1990's he was one of the persons birders flocked to at big festivals. His books on birding and his field guides began to be as common on naturalists' bookshelves as encyclopedias are in libraries.

To be in his audience was something to write home about. To stand within earshot during one of his crowded field trips was like heaven on earth.

In one magic month the Bristol Bird Club made all of those dreams and far more reality for area and state birders. Kenn Kaufman was ours at a time when no one dared to go where dreamers dared to dream.

Kaufman came to a monthly meeting of the Bristol Bird Club to be our program speaker at ETSU-Bristol Campus, October 9, 2000. Word spread like wildfire when the news began to break that he was on his way to the BBC.

Delta Flight 4190 taxied towards the gates at Tri-City Airport, Sunday, Oct 8. It was 6:55 p.m. and birders Bob Quillen, Larry McDaniel and Wallace Coffey had all eyes forward as the passengers began to depart. Ken Kaufman was all smiles as he noticed the three waiting with binoculars around their necks. Ken then knew this was his official BBC greeting party. He had asked where to meet us and how he would recognize us. We told him that would be no problem. It wasn't. He loved it.

So there we were, driving up the road -- just the four of us. He was an absolutely relaxed and as down to earth as anyone you would ever want to meet. He said he was ours for whatever we wanted to do while he was here. We laid out our schedule. He said it was fine.

We would probably need to pinch ourselves to see if we would wake up from an unbelievable dream. But making arrangements for his visit was almost as dramatic.


It all began when Wallace Coffey, lurking on a national birding listserv, suddenly saw a brief post by Kaufman. THERE WAS HIS PERSONAL E-MAIL !! Oh, man. This had possibility. So a few moments of brainstorming and internet surfing found "Kenn Kaufman's Great American Cities Tour and Dates for The Birds of North America, his new field guide coming out that fall. He was flashing across America on a thirty-cities tour to promote that new book.

Ah, heck. What will hurt ? An e-mail was crafted that went out on Sept. 19 to "Ken:" The approach was to put a marketing spin on his plate. We ask if we "can reach you in our market for a local book appearance and pitching our bird clubs" and we promised him a media exposure that would reach a network covering much of the south. We had access to major media outlets over a very large area. We looked forward to hearing from him during his busy schedule. We left phone numbers.

He did not reply.

Then came THE phone call. A woman by the name of Deborah calling from the Houghton Mifflin Co., publishers of the Kaufman field guide was on the line. Ken had forwarded our e-mail. She had studied it carefully. Was impressed with our eagerness. Was impressed with our near top 100 market. Was impressed that we seemed to know how to market this and how important media support was and our apparent understanding of how to do this.

Deborah had a lot of hard questions about demographics, network associated outlets. She needed, within 50 miles, CBS/NBC affiliate news coverage. She had a date we would have to work with.

In a few minutes she had everything she wanted and much more. She said Kaufman would be flying from an appearance at the three-day Clearwater Bird Festival at Tampa/St. Petersburg, heading into appearance at New York City and Boston.

Did we have a commercial airport that he could make a side flight to that would have a service carrier which could handle what was needed? We did!

It was simple. Then he was ours for Monday, Oct. 9th. The publisher in New York would take care of all the arrangements and pay all the expenses for his visit.

Oh, yes. There was one other small thing to handle. Now we found "Haley" calling and she wanted to know about making a a needed surge with a bookseller. We had to provide that. She wanted something quick. It would be part of the deal. He was to sell and sign books. They were smart marketers and knew their business.

I had bought my personal copy of his book at Books A Million in Johnson City. They were a major retail book outlet in the market. To our horror, they were cool to us, gave us no encouragement and said they would get back to us and then didn't. We were getting in a bind.

What we did know was that B. Dalton Booksellers, who specialize in shopping mall stores and are owned by Barnes & Noble, Inc., had a store in the Bristol Mall. So let's give that a shot.

B Dalton's said yes in a heartbeat. Within hours they had a list of every book by Kaufman. Their manager gave it a great thumbs up. They would order cases of all of his books shipped to their store. Anything that was not sold would be shipped back to their warehouse. Their people would come to ETSU/BBC and set up to sell. They would bring charge-card machines. Was there anything else they could do for us ? Houghton Mifflin liked that. We were a final to go.

Houghton Mifflin rained down on us with promotion materials and info. We soon had commitments from the local media and packets quickly in the hands of media from Knoxville to Roanoke to Asheville.

Bryan Stevens prepared and printed a nice program handout. Dave Worley would video everything. President Janice Martin would handle a reception. Mary Jane Erwin had the name tags. Some two dozen seats would be reserved up front for BBC members. Coffey would set up a special invitation field trip during the day leading up to that night's meeting. Larry McDaniel and Coffey would take him to dinner as needed. It was all hammered out at a quickly-called meeting at Bare's Bar-B-Que in Bristol. Ten birders showed up to make sure it happened.

At 8 a.m. on Mon., Oct 9, with TV production crews hustling in front with news cameras, the invitational field trip of 10 people set out on foot. Camera angles caught the images of birders moving over a dark woodland trail and they were in the background as seen behind a great spider dripping in the morning dew and early morning sun. In the background the voice of Kenn Kaufman talking about the birds and the their songs as a great touch. He was fabulous.

We were shocked at two things: (1) he called a Blackburnian Warbler flying across a long opening from nearly 200 feet away (we challenged that call and he walked us right up to the bird ;-)(2) he could not get his binoculars off a Brown Thrasher. He enjoyed it because he doesn't see them often in Arizona, where he lives. The field trip continued and Larry McDaniel and others birded on with him over Holston Mountain and into the bogs in Shady Valley.

Sixty (60) birders came from across the region to hear his presentation at ETSU. He stayed late and signed every book the birders wanted and sat to chat with anyone who wanted to just talk. Kenn stayed behind to have his photo taken with BBC members.

B Dalton's had the largest off-site book sale in the Bristol store's history. They were beyond themselves. They never dreamed his books would sell like that and that birders bought so many copies. It was good and easy money. It was good for B Dalton's.



It seemed like only a few hours and U.S. Air Flight 4003 closed its doors at 7 a.m. on Tuesday morning and carried one of America's great birders away on their big wings. The many warm memories of BBC birders would linger to these last key strokes and as long as our minds can comprehend.

Persons participating in the BBC Kenn Kaufman Invitational Field Trip Mon, Oct 9, 2000 -- Rick Knight, Bert Hale, Bob Quillen, Bryan Stevens, Howard Langridge, Wallace Coffey, Larry McDaniel, Janice Martin, Geoff Larsen, Kenn Kaufman and Jim Conrad of WCYB-TV

Flights Against the Sunset, his new upcoming book is scheduled to be published by Houghton Mifflin Co. April 24, 2008.

from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club

Link: http://www.freelists.org/archives/bristol-birds/03-2008/msg00004.html

Bristol Bird Club members enjoyed the best weather you could imagine and a fabulous canoe/birding trip on the Clinch River in Russell County, Saturday, June 15, 2002. It was the highlight of a weekend that began on Friday and ended on Sunday.

Excitement was in the air when birders began arriving at The Nature Conservancy's famous Rikemo Lodge in Scott County. It is a beautiful hunting lodge built in 1969 by the former Clinchfield Railroad which used it to entertain their clients.

Luggage and packs and were carried in, boxes of food loaded to the kitchen, nine canoes ready on a trailer and a truck.

The rustic facility, is perched atop Copper Ridge amidst trees and peaceful views, 600 feet above the river. It provided an excellent base for exploring Southwestern Virginia's natural treasures.

It was located near Dungannon, as part of Gray's Island Preserve, which protects one of the most significant habitats for globally rare freshwater mussels.

Janice Martin had a new and excellent handout of the 2002 BBC Membership List, hot off the press.

Birders pulled up chairs around the long dinning tables and spent a leisurely evening chatting and having dinner together. Others lingered late into the evening in the comfortable chairs and on the couches around the 20-foot-long giant, stone fireplace.

Saturday morning found members in the kitchen getting their breakfasts ready and dressed for the much-anticipated down river birding. Don Holt had butterflies in his stomach.

Sprits were high and expectations created considerable excitement. The gang was soon car pooled to Cleveland where the canoes were launched.

Ron Lapp, and his niece who flew in from Ohio for the trip, pushed off in his personal canoe. The group was headed up by Braven Beaty of The Nature Conservancy and Janice Martin. Wallace Coffey and Carolyn Coffey followed the lead with Ed Talbott and Michelle Talbott in the next boat and Dave Worley and Diana Worley in that order. Larry McDaniel and Don Holt made up still another team and their boat followed by Mary Erwin and John Hay. Judy Musick road on board with Mary Evans and Mike Evans while Tom Horsch and Jil Riendeau paddled last to sweep along for boats that may needed assistance.

The nearly seven-mile trip took about half the day as the BBC journeyed into one of North America's most sensitive and valued biodiversity hotspots as recognized by The Nature Conservancy.

The spirited group of BBC river runners and their guests ate bagged lunches on the river bank before finally pulling in at Carterton where the boats were taken out, racked on a truck and trailer and hauled back to Rikemo.

Back at the cozy, rustic, surroundings of the former hunting lodge of hand-hewn logs with beautiful pegged floors, returning parties found Bob Quillen, Rose Lapp and June Fulbright enjoying birding in the 100-acre preserve.

 The lodging, boats and weekend were free to BBC if the club would make a trip list of birds seen and heard available to The Nature Conservancy.

Later, many gathered on the big porch with rockers while others took turns catching an afternoon nap and warm showers in their private rooms.

The lazy afternoon awoke to chips and fruits and all kinds of dips and spreads and great appetizers provided by Jil Riendeau. In early evening, dinner was on big time as birders again gathered in the great hall for Jil's catered dinner and dessert. No one wanted to leave the tables. Everyone just visited and lingered and soaked it all in. We even learned a lot about family histories and Confederate history.

They were still raving over the dinner when several birders got tangled up calling in Screech-Owls to the back porch. Even though there was an owl flying all around the building, a small group in the front yard was whistling the owl call while there were others birders calling from the back porch. The owl was not only interested but somewhat confused. Neither group knew the others were out calling and each thought the other was the owl. So they called back and forth to each other and took pride in their owl calling success. The real owl did not call but flew from front to back several times :-)

Some went on a successful after-dark birding exploration to find the Chuck-wills-widow and Don Holt surprised a woodcock. Others stayed up late talking about plans for future trips which the club could take and others turned in early for a good night in the big handmade four- poster beds.

There were so many extra birders joining the trip that BBC extended the limits and allowed some to bring their sleeping bags and sleep by the big fireplace in the lodge hall.

Most had early breakfast on Sunday and a few slept in for an extra hour or two.

Everyone thought it was a tremendous weekend and had dreams of more -- even Janice Martin who was drying out her underwear from getting a big spill in the river at the first rapids. :-0 Never grab limbs from a canoe, Janice :-( You were told that before you picked up a paddle :-)

from the archives of the Bristol Bird Club

Link: http://www.freelists.org/archives/bristol-birds/02-2008/msg00103.html

Ed Talbott of Grundy, VA sent his memories from the 2002-2003 Mt. Rogers CBC when he made a modern-day, survival-type, count to the crest of Virginia's highest peak. He was afield with his wife, Michelle, and Bob Riggs of Russell County. His account of that experience and the photos from a previous website detail the kind of experiences passed along in the previous BBC Snippet.

Ed's memories are being shared here because it is one more accounting of the history of such high elevation CBCs in our region. At the end of this snippet you will see the official published account of the temperatures for that day. Other birders have been on these high elevation counts and experienced the same sights as depicted so well in Ed's and Michelle's scenes lifted from his video camera.

However, there is no record of temperatures as low as the -8°F that he mentions in his post. So it needs to be included in the history that any of you might keep. The difference between the official reported and previously published temperature of the count is not an issue. What is important is that no birder ever experiences a day in the field like one of these and forgets the details. We should all accept Ed's recollection as accurate. It does not reflect on his party or the count that there is a discrepancy. What it does do is further document what that one party actually experienced and what others have enjoyed afield in this beautiful high country. The challenges far exceed the birding :-)

It is also noteworthy that this is probably the only such extreme temperatures endured by any woman in a Mt. Rogers CBC party in the high elevations of that count. Standing on the peak of your state's highest mountain counting birds in those conditions are historic. It is a pretty good question to ask as to whether there has ever been a woman afield, walking all day at such elevation, under such condition, on the Mt. Rogers CBC. The round trip hike to Mt. Rogers' peak from Elk Garden is not less than seven miles

Here is the memory in the worlds of Ed Talbott:

"I enjoyed your history of the Mt. Rogers CBC. The Jan. 4, 2003 Count remains my fondest memory of any CBC and ranks as one of my top birding experiences of all time. I don't know what got into us but Michelle and I along with Bob Riggs left Elk Garden in a howling wind and temps around zero and decided to summit Virginia's highest peak that day. We almost turned around but once we reached the tree line the winds and snow died down we had a good hike to the top. I wish I had a digital camera in those days but I was able to capture some images with my camcorder. We birded all day and ended up with three species - Raven, Crow, and Black-capped Chickadee - probably a low count CBC record for three birders spending the entire day in the field. About noon the sun broke out above the clouds lying in the valleys around us. The low temps and blowing snow had coated every surface with rime ice and the sun made everything parkle. We felt like we were walking through a crystalline world. When we finally made it back to Elk Garden the thermometer at the trail head read -8 but it was exposed to the wind.

"Thanks for the trip down memory lane," Ed wrote.

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MOUNT ROGERS-WHITE TOP MOUNTAIN.

Circle Center: Jct. 600 and 603.- 36° 39' N 81° 35' W.

Field data: Count date: 4 Jan 2003. Times in field: 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Temperatures: 8° to 30° F. Wind NW, 5-20 mph. AM skies cloudy, light to no snow. PM skies clear. Snow depth: 0-3 inches. Still water partly open, moving water partly frozen.

Field observers: 16 in 6 parties. Total party-hours: 44.5 (22.25 on foot, 22.25 by car). Total party-miles: 277.5 (23.5 on foot, 254 by car). Observers: Not reported.

Compiler: Allen Boynton. Total species: 46; Total individuals: 1,797.