[TN-Bird] KOS Fall Meeting: learning from a raptor expert
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "TN-birds" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 13:45:31 -0400
When the Bristol Bird Club last year was invited by the board of directors of
the Kentucky Ornithological Society to join with them as co-sponsors of their
annual fall meeting this year at Pine Mountain State Park near Middlesboro, Ky,
we knew what a historical opportunity both KOS and BBC had undertaken.
Bristol Bird Club members and Tennessee Ornithological Society members who
drove to Kentucky this past weeekend for the event had one of the best fall
meeting you could imagine.
Who would imagine having hours and hours of field clinic in raptor
identification on such a personal and down-to-earth basis as provided by Brian
Wheeler. He flew from his home in Colorado to be the featured raptor expert
and speaker for the weekend.
The Bristol Bird Club was proud to have helped pay his expenses and be able to
do that.
He was so accessible, so enjoyable, so instructive, so laidback, so warm and so
helpful to all. Each person could have much personal one-on-one time with
Wheeler. Just ask the BBC's 15-year-old Chris O'Bryan what that meant to him.
A nationally renowned raptor expert and author of our most prominent hawk
books, he not only knows his stuff but can relate it, teach it and use it with
amazing style. I felt like I was exposed to and learned more about raptor
field identification this weekend than in my previous 45 years afield at hawk
watches and birding.
Wheeler was an illustrator and co-author of the Peterson Field Guides:
"Hawks" and the photographer for "A Photographic Guide to North American
Raptors." In 2003, he released his newest books, "Raptors of Eastern North
America: The Wheeler Guides and Raptors of Western North America: The Wheeler
Guides."
Not only did he conduct a 2-hour session on raptor photography and field
identification but he taught us useful and valuable details and identification
techniques 99 percent of hawkwatchers will never learn in a lifetime.
Hawk watching with him at the Pinnacles Overlook in the Cumbrland Gap National
Historic Park was something to remember. Wheeler revealed how to call species
by age class, sex, feather tracts and relative patterns most would never think
about. Birders were jammed shoulder to shoulder with Wheeler focusing numerous
scopes on the details as he called them. As fast as Broad-wings,
Red-shouldered, Sharp-shineds, Red-tails, Cooper's and Bald Eagle could fly
past he was instructive.
It was amazing to watch him seperate ages and sex instantly as they zoomed over
the treetops in the wind and sun. Who can forget that experience ?
Personally, I was able to spend long one-on-one discussions with him about the
raptor distribution maps in his new guides, learning his methods and sources
and how he actually managed all that detail. He talked at length about the
issues of producing such a book -- how the money was advanced by the publiser
and how much he got for that. He is a very open guy who is tremendously
sharing.
Everyone there should have been given a raptor diploma !
And the Kentucky Ornithological Society should be given a standing ovation for
their creative and imagintive fall meeting which combined both a wonderful
nationally known raptor expert and author but the field experiences with him at
a hawk migration lookout.
Who thought to do that ? Give that person a dozen red roses and a shiny trophy
! And hats off to the Kentucky Ornithological Society for asking the Bristol
Bird Club to join with their state organization to make this all possible.
Let's go birding...
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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