Friday, October 23, 2009
New checklist coming for local birders
Mark Taylor
Mark Taylor's Outdoors column and notebook appears regularly in The Roanoke Times.
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Good news for Roanoke-area birders: Barry Kinzie is working on a new edition of his essential checklist for the Roanoke Valley.
The 65-year-old Troutville resident, who is retired from jobs as a teacher and manager of an apple-packing operation, expects the new edition of "Birds of the Roanoke Valley: An Annotated Checklist" to be available in January or February of 2011.
Novice birders may wonder, Why use a checklist? Why isn't a field guide enough?
"The point of a checklist is that you use it with a field guide," Kinzie said. "We've done a lot of research figuring out when birds arrive locally, when they depart, how common they are."
A good checklist will tell you, for example, when the earliest spring pine warbler is seen, when the last ruby-throated hummer departs, and how likely it is that that colorful little bird is a painted bunting. (Answer: possible but not likely.)
Answers to such questions are why most serious Roanoke birders have a copy of Kinzie's book.
In July when I saw four birds circling a cornfield near the Blackwater River in Franklin County, they looked like double-crested cormorants. But I was unaccustomed to seeing these waterfowl in our area except during migration.
When I checked with Kinzie, I learned that cormorants, though once rarely spotted locally in breeding season, are now seen increasingly during the warm months.
The first edition of Kinzie's book listed 285 species that had been seen at least once in the Roanoke Valley. The new edition will add at least 20 more.
This past season, for example, saw the first reported red-throated loon at Carvin's Cove, as well as the first eared grebe at the sewage treatment plant.
Kinzie has seen many changes since the first edition of his checklist in 1985.
"We've lost our loggerhead shrikes," he said. "In the '70s you could work a bit and find Bewick's wrens. Not anymore.
"The evening grosbeaks were the most common birds in winter at a lot of feeders. Now I don't think I've seen one in two or three years. Northern bobwhite quail are now almost gone. Same thing for grasshopper sparrows."
On the other side of the ledger, the nasal-voiced fish crow, which has been moving inland from the coast, can now be found in Roanoke. Kinzie reported that a few pairs hang out near the intersection of Williamson Road and Hershberger.
Kinzie recalled that, decades ago, a score of four bald eagles and one peregrine falcon was typical for the Harvey's Knob autumn hawk watch.
"Now we get 75 to 80 bald eagles a year, and several peregrines," he said.
The more cooks for this stew, the better, said Kinzie.
"We'll be using a lot of help from a lot of people for this project," he said.
Kinzie is soliciting help from local birders. He monitors the Roanoke Birds Internet list, and he welcomes reports at 992-2743 or peckerridge@ntelos.net.
If you'd like to join the Roanoke Birds list, e-mail me at the address below my photo at the top of this column.
