History of the Brooks Bird Club
Formed back in 1932, the Brooks Bird Club has had a long history with many members over the years. To learn how the BBC has evolved over the years, check out the BBC Historical Timeline below. You will learn how and when we formed, who created the first newsletter, when the BBC nature Foray began, about past members, and so much more!
Enjoy our historical slideshow
The club was founded in 1932 by John Handlan and a group of enthusiastic young people including Charles L. Conrad. John Handlan with A. B. Brooks, a well-known West Virginia naturalist, led the group on weekly bird walks in Oglebay Park located in Wheeling WV. A. B. had a great influence on the club’s knowledge and philosophy, thus the club’s name. Most of the early members attended the Nature Training School at Oglebay Park and Terra Alta, West Virginia. This led to the first BBC Foray in 1940, directed by Charles L. Conrad of Wheeling, who continued to be the Foray Director until his death on July 2, 1982.
To see a complete list of our past presidents and what years they served, check out the Former Presidents page.
To see a complete list of our past presidents and what years they served, check out the Former Presidents page.
For over ninety years, the Brooks Bird Club of West Virginia has existed to educate, to explore, and to provide a network for friends and naturalists of all levels.
1932: In September of 1932, the West Virginia Nature Association, which had been erected within the framework of Oglebay Institute, based at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, WV, held a dinner and meeting that later evolved into small groups of "special interest" people. There was a bird group, a botany group, an astronomy group, and even a nature poetry organization. The bird group has survived as The Brooks Bird Club.
The Nature Association was an outgrowth of the public nature walks conducted on Sunday mornings by A.B. Brooks, Oglebay Institute naturalist. At the time, the walks had averaged 115 people who came each Sunday to the park for a guided trip around the trails with Mr. Brooks as leader.
At the first meeting of the group interested in bird study, Dr. Matthew F. Zubak proposed the name, which the club still bears - The Brooks Bird Club.
1933: Russell West produced the first copy of “The Redstart”, a single mimeographed page that he compiled and edited. The publication has continued and is now the oldest ornithological publication in West Virginia.
Read more: 'The Redstart'
1935: In March 1935, Maurice Brooks made the following statement, 'Since the recent meetings of The Wilson Ornithological Club in Pittsburgh, at which so many members of our BBC were present, a number of thoughts have been running through my mind. In the first place, I had not realized that the organization was so active. Secondly, I hadn't stopped to consider that some of the members have stopped being merely bird students and are now ready to embark on the career of becoming ornithologists. Further, I realize as never before what a tremendous contribution the organization will make to our knowledge of bird life. '
1939: On May 30, 1939, Mike Haller and Lloyd Poland collected a male warbler in a scrub pine and deciduous woods 12 miles south of Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia. Two days later they collected a female bird four miles north of Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, West Virginia. The birds were new to ornithologists and are now known as the Sutton Warbler, named in honor of Dr. George M. Sutton.
1940: First BBC nature Foray. The scope of club activities gradually increased, but in 1940 the club pulled away from under the wing of Oglebay Institute and was on its own, starting with a week-long nature study, a “Nature Foray”, at Lost River State Park. That started a series of similar, week-long expeditions, which have added considerably to ornithological, botanical and herpetological knowledge of West Virginia.
The “Forays”, for example, have provided records for first nestlings of such species as Purple Finch, Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Hooded Warbler, Nashville Warbler and others. Considerable worthwhile work in botany, herpetology and mammalogy has resulted from combined efforts of the camp groups in the past several years.
The club has been favored at the week-long “Forays” by the presence of various outstanding naturalists.
Read more: BBC nature 'Foray'
1941: In December 1941 our country was at war. At this time, President Chuck Conrad said, ‘We will carry on as a club and have monthly meetings as long as we have any active members left.’ And we did so without missing a meeting or a “Foray”. Members enlisted and some went to battle.
1943: In 1943, the club had a total of 200 active and corresponding members. It was decided that the section in “The Restart” titled ‘Correspondence’ should be a separate publication, thus the “The Mail Bag” came into existence with Kay Conrad as editor. It officially became the club newsletter that fall, and George Breiding was appointed the new editor.
1944: In September 1944, the club rented space in the basement of a building in the Warwood section of Wheeling WV; this became headquarters of the BBC for nearly sixty years.
The Handlan Chapter is formed, based in Kanawha County.
1948: The 1948 BBC “foray” was held at Camp Thornwood near Bartow, West Virginia. The club had learned of Aldrich and Stewart's bird census studies in the spruce belt and decided to follow up with our own studies. Thus we became involved in “the singing male census” program with Russ De Garmo in charge. This foray location has been repeated every five years ever since, with a wealth of valuable data being recorded.
Read more: BBC 'Breeding Bird Census'
1949: The first Mid-Winter Meeting was held at the clubroom on February 18-20, 1949.
1950: The Brooks Birds Club and the former Huntington Bird Club co-hosted the Wilson Society Meeting at Jackson's Mill on April 27-30, 1950.
1952: The 20th Anniversary of the club was celebrated over the Labor Day weekend in 1952 at Camp Piedmont. Every effort was made for a big turnout. All of the past presidents and The Redstart editors were present, except Mike Haller, who was in the service.
The decade of the ‘50s might be summed up as one of great programs - numerically, scientifically, and academically. The club grew in numbers, the programs of study grew in scope and the members grew in their knowledge and appreciation of nature study. Following the BBC tradition of teaching each other, many new or recent members developed interests and skills that made them pillars in the club. How could we miss when we had teachers like De Garmo, Handlan, Hall, Chandler, the Conrads, Bartley, Hicks, Shields, Breiding, Masteller, Brooks and others, and students like Hurley, the Boechers, the Laitsches, Bell, the Ballentines, the Coles, Worthleys, Anderson, and others too numerous to mention? Many came into the club well versed in one subject and remained to embrace another field of study, sometimes with outstanding results.
1962: 30th Anniversary in 1962, the membership had grown from a sparse 28 Charter Members to a membership in excess of 300 persons. The time had come for a reassessment of the club's resources and to take a closer look at future planning to meet the challenge of a changing world.
1970: At the end of forty years the club, had grown to a membership of more than 600. Despite this number, contact was kept through our publications and personal communications; therefore we still operated much like a small club. There were three chapters that held regular meetings, and the yearly program was designed to accommodate the greatest number of members possible. In 1970, eleven studies by BBC members were submitted for publication in "American Birds."
In a 35 year of distribution of breeding bird censuses in the December issue of that publication, West Virginia led the field in the number of censuses published. BBC members were responsible for nearly all of these studies.
The annual hawk counts at Bear Rocks and Peter's Mountain provide much information on hawk migration. Banding activities were growing. The "Red Creek Boys," George Hall and Ralph Bell, who operated a station on Allegheny Front Mountain for fifteen years, received enough assistance from other BBC banders this fall to operate non-stop as long as weather permitted.
1976: A.R. (Jay) Buckelew takes the editing position of the Redstart.
1978: The Mountwood Bird Club of Wood County WV and the Bibbee Nature Club of Summer County WV, became the first stand-alone bird clubs to affiliate with the BBC organization.
In September 1978, 47 BBC members boarded a plane for Switzerland for a 15-day tour of Switzerland and surrounding countries. The tour was arranged by members Bob and Margrit McCausland, who served as guides. Ornithological research centers were visited as well as refuges and museums. Excellent birding was enjoyed under the guidance of local bird experts.
Since then, groups have gone to southern California, Holland, West Texas, Costa Rica, Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland, Spain, South Africa, Ireland and England, Texas-Arizona, and Greece and Turkey. Trips to Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, Nova Scotia, Spain (again), Maine and more have been taken since 2007.
1982: The club experienced both triumph and tragedy in 1982, The triumph was the successful celebration of the club’s 50th anniversary, held October at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, the birthplace of the club. Nationally known persons who took part were Dr. M. Graham Netting, Chandler S. Robbins, George H. Harrison, Hal H. Harrison and Dr. Maurice Brooks, who was the speaker for the Saturday evening banquet. Dr. Brooks was the nephew of Alonzo Beecher “A.B. “ Brooks, for whom the club is named. Roger Tory Peterson, who attended some early BBC “Forays”, could not be present, but sent an essay which was printed in the April, 1983 Redstart. Dr. George Miksch Sutton also wrote some recollections of A.B. and others, which were read by his friend Dr. Albert R. “Jay” Buckelew Jr. at the Saturday afternoon session.
On the Saturday morning nature walk, Harold O’Leary, a Wheeling actor, impersonated A.B. and recited some of his favorite poems. The actor’s deep voice reverberated through the autumnal woods, creating a memorable and lasting effect on the 200 persons present. Dr. Greg E. Eddy, President of the club, presided at the daily sessions. Thirty-three club members served on 18 committees, assuring the success of the weekend, which drew an attendance of 330.
The tragedy was the death of Charles Louis “Chuck” Conrad, at the age of 71. He had been Executive Secretary of the club since 1937, Editor of The Mail Bag from 1963 to 1981 and Editor of The Redstart in 1943. The Saturday night program at the 50th anniversary celebration was dedicated to Chuck, and a tree was planted in his memory on Saturday morning. In tribute to Chuck Conrad, Dr. Maurice Brooks said, “Few people in this world have the talent and the opportunity to guide, inspire and preserve a organization for 50 years ... There’s only one word for Chuck’s leadership, "charismatic." In its eulogy, The Mail Bag noted that, “The joy of his memory will last far longer than the pain and sorrow of his leaving. Perhaps we can be comforted by the thought that, "The soul could have no rainbow had the eye no tears." The Brooks Bird Club is a unique organization because Chuck Conrad made it so. It will be his enduring monument.”
It was difficult to imagine the club without Chuck, as he was one of the founders of the club, its only Executive Secretary and had directed every BBC “Foray” since the beginning. When the question was asked,
'Where does the club go now?" The answer was - "There is only one way to go and that is forward." Through Chuck’s leadership and guidance, he left behind trained leadership with a will to carry on. There has never been a doubt since the Brooks Bird Club was formed in 1932 that it would not survive and prosper, so let there never be any doubt henceforth. As we approached our 50th Anniversary, we began to look forward to a solid future, for there are still many things to be discovered and enjoyed.
Dr. Albert R. “Jay” Buckelew Jr., Professor of Biology at Bethany College and a member of the club since 1970, was named Administrator by the Board of Directors on July 31. The former BBC officers position of "Executive Secretary" was retired in honor of Chuck’s long service.
1984: The five-year Breeding Bird Atlas project, headed by Dr. Jay Buckelew and Dr. George Hall, began on January 1, 1984. The Atlas project was redone in 2009-2015, with data being examined currently for use in a future book printing. Both projects had the support, both in the field and in the writing, of many members of the Club.
1994: Terra Alta weekends were held at the Oglebay Mountain Camp in 1994, 1995, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Starting in July 2007, the Terra Alta weekends have become "Bonus bird weekends.” The 2001 Bonus Bird Weekend was in Bartow, WV; 2002 was held at Oglebay's Mountain Camp at Terra Alta; 2003 was at Alpine Lake Resort in Terra Alta; 2004 was at the Mountain Camp at Terra Alta; 2005 was held at Wildernest Inn in Petersburg, WV; and 2006 and 2007 were both at the Oglebay Mountain camp at Terra Alta.
1999: The Birding Guide to West Virginia was published in 1999 as a result of Jim Bullard's hard work. The club voted at the 1999 Membership Meeting to purchase The Birds of North America series. The club became one of only three institutions in the state to purchase the valuable research tool. The series is currently in the BBC Library at the Schrader Environmental Center at Oglebay Park in Wheeling.
2002: The BBC goes online, the first website of the club is launched! Created by longtime BBC member Matt Fox.
2007: The club celebrated its 75th Anniversary with a celebration and meeting at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, where it all began. Club speakers included Chandler Robbins, Ralph Bell, Greg Eddy, Bill Beatty, J. Lawrence Smith and Dick Diener. The main speaker for the weekend was Kenn Kaufman.
2008: The Pocahontas Nature Club of Pocahontas County WV, becomes the 3rd and newest bird club to affiliate with the BBC.
2012: The club reaches its 80th birthday. The 80 anniversary/fall reunion was held at Blackwater Falls State Park and was attended by around 100 members and guests. Ted Floyd, from the American Birding Association, was the keynote speaker, and many interesting workshops, field trips and activities made it a wonderful weekend. Members that hadn’t been seen in decades made it. Super storm Sandy made sure we were cleared out early though, and just a day after we left, 30 inches of snow blanketed the region, and the lodge was closed for over a week.
The BBC published two books recently. One was a reworking of the Birding Guide to West Virginia, edited by Greg Eddy. The other was a posthumous book from J. Lawrence Smith, entitled Wings Over the Mountains, a collection of essays of the birds and birders of the state. It included many references to the BBC and its members.
2015: Spring, work begins on the development of club's new website.
2016: In spring, the BBC's new website is launched, with unlimited space, we add many new features. Some of these features include, joining online and signing up for BBC events like our annual nature Foray and Spring meeting & Fall Reunion. PayPal is now offered for payment. Also, the Mail Bag and the Redstart are now available to all online!
Albert R. Buckelew (Jay) retires from the position as the BBC Redstart editor after forty years of editing the club's scientific journal.
2017: Casey Rucker becomes the editor of the Redstart. The BBC celebrates its 85 year! Keynote speakers Bill Thompson III and Lang Elliot join in the weekend of activities.
2018: All volumes/issues of the Redstart from 1933 to the current editions are made accessible to all on the BBC website.
2019: Long time member of the Brooks Bird Club, and BBC Administrator Carl Slater passed away on December 5th. 2019
Carl had been a member of the BBC for over 60 years! He will be remembered and missed by all who knew him.
2020: All club events go on hold after our Annual Spring Meeting in March due to the Corona Virus pandemic. Foray 2020 canceled.
2021: The 2021 Foray is canceled due to continuing concerns about the pandemic. The 2021 Fall Reunion reboots the club, it's the first large BBC gathering since March of 2020.
2022: The BBC nature Foray resumes in June, after two years of being canceled, based in Terra Alta WV at Camp Galilee. The BBC celebrates its 90th anniversary in October at Hawks Nest State Park!
1932: In September of 1932, the West Virginia Nature Association, which had been erected within the framework of Oglebay Institute, based at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, WV, held a dinner and meeting that later evolved into small groups of "special interest" people. There was a bird group, a botany group, an astronomy group, and even a nature poetry organization. The bird group has survived as The Brooks Bird Club.
The Nature Association was an outgrowth of the public nature walks conducted on Sunday mornings by A.B. Brooks, Oglebay Institute naturalist. At the time, the walks had averaged 115 people who came each Sunday to the park for a guided trip around the trails with Mr. Brooks as leader.
At the first meeting of the group interested in bird study, Dr. Matthew F. Zubak proposed the name, which the club still bears - The Brooks Bird Club.
1933: Russell West produced the first copy of “The Redstart”, a single mimeographed page that he compiled and edited. The publication has continued and is now the oldest ornithological publication in West Virginia.
Read more: 'The Redstart'
1935: In March 1935, Maurice Brooks made the following statement, 'Since the recent meetings of The Wilson Ornithological Club in Pittsburgh, at which so many members of our BBC were present, a number of thoughts have been running through my mind. In the first place, I had not realized that the organization was so active. Secondly, I hadn't stopped to consider that some of the members have stopped being merely bird students and are now ready to embark on the career of becoming ornithologists. Further, I realize as never before what a tremendous contribution the organization will make to our knowledge of bird life. '
1939: On May 30, 1939, Mike Haller and Lloyd Poland collected a male warbler in a scrub pine and deciduous woods 12 miles south of Martinsburg, Berkeley County, West Virginia. Two days later they collected a female bird four miles north of Shepherdstown, Jefferson County, West Virginia. The birds were new to ornithologists and are now known as the Sutton Warbler, named in honor of Dr. George M. Sutton.
1940: First BBC nature Foray. The scope of club activities gradually increased, but in 1940 the club pulled away from under the wing of Oglebay Institute and was on its own, starting with a week-long nature study, a “Nature Foray”, at Lost River State Park. That started a series of similar, week-long expeditions, which have added considerably to ornithological, botanical and herpetological knowledge of West Virginia.
The “Forays”, for example, have provided records for first nestlings of such species as Purple Finch, Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Hooded Warbler, Nashville Warbler and others. Considerable worthwhile work in botany, herpetology and mammalogy has resulted from combined efforts of the camp groups in the past several years.
The club has been favored at the week-long “Forays” by the presence of various outstanding naturalists.
Read more: BBC nature 'Foray'
1941: In December 1941 our country was at war. At this time, President Chuck Conrad said, ‘We will carry on as a club and have monthly meetings as long as we have any active members left.’ And we did so without missing a meeting or a “Foray”. Members enlisted and some went to battle.
1943: In 1943, the club had a total of 200 active and corresponding members. It was decided that the section in “The Restart” titled ‘Correspondence’ should be a separate publication, thus the “The Mail Bag” came into existence with Kay Conrad as editor. It officially became the club newsletter that fall, and George Breiding was appointed the new editor.
1944: In September 1944, the club rented space in the basement of a building in the Warwood section of Wheeling WV; this became headquarters of the BBC for nearly sixty years.
The Handlan Chapter is formed, based in Kanawha County.
1948: The 1948 BBC “foray” was held at Camp Thornwood near Bartow, West Virginia. The club had learned of Aldrich and Stewart's bird census studies in the spruce belt and decided to follow up with our own studies. Thus we became involved in “the singing male census” program with Russ De Garmo in charge. This foray location has been repeated every five years ever since, with a wealth of valuable data being recorded.
Read more: BBC 'Breeding Bird Census'
1949: The first Mid-Winter Meeting was held at the clubroom on February 18-20, 1949.
1950: The Brooks Birds Club and the former Huntington Bird Club co-hosted the Wilson Society Meeting at Jackson's Mill on April 27-30, 1950.
1952: The 20th Anniversary of the club was celebrated over the Labor Day weekend in 1952 at Camp Piedmont. Every effort was made for a big turnout. All of the past presidents and The Redstart editors were present, except Mike Haller, who was in the service.
The decade of the ‘50s might be summed up as one of great programs - numerically, scientifically, and academically. The club grew in numbers, the programs of study grew in scope and the members grew in their knowledge and appreciation of nature study. Following the BBC tradition of teaching each other, many new or recent members developed interests and skills that made them pillars in the club. How could we miss when we had teachers like De Garmo, Handlan, Hall, Chandler, the Conrads, Bartley, Hicks, Shields, Breiding, Masteller, Brooks and others, and students like Hurley, the Boechers, the Laitsches, Bell, the Ballentines, the Coles, Worthleys, Anderson, and others too numerous to mention? Many came into the club well versed in one subject and remained to embrace another field of study, sometimes with outstanding results.
1962: 30th Anniversary in 1962, the membership had grown from a sparse 28 Charter Members to a membership in excess of 300 persons. The time had come for a reassessment of the club's resources and to take a closer look at future planning to meet the challenge of a changing world.
1970: At the end of forty years the club, had grown to a membership of more than 600. Despite this number, contact was kept through our publications and personal communications; therefore we still operated much like a small club. There were three chapters that held regular meetings, and the yearly program was designed to accommodate the greatest number of members possible. In 1970, eleven studies by BBC members were submitted for publication in "American Birds."
In a 35 year of distribution of breeding bird censuses in the December issue of that publication, West Virginia led the field in the number of censuses published. BBC members were responsible for nearly all of these studies.
The annual hawk counts at Bear Rocks and Peter's Mountain provide much information on hawk migration. Banding activities were growing. The "Red Creek Boys," George Hall and Ralph Bell, who operated a station on Allegheny Front Mountain for fifteen years, received enough assistance from other BBC banders this fall to operate non-stop as long as weather permitted.
1976: A.R. (Jay) Buckelew takes the editing position of the Redstart.
1978: The Mountwood Bird Club of Wood County WV and the Bibbee Nature Club of Summer County WV, became the first stand-alone bird clubs to affiliate with the BBC organization.
In September 1978, 47 BBC members boarded a plane for Switzerland for a 15-day tour of Switzerland and surrounding countries. The tour was arranged by members Bob and Margrit McCausland, who served as guides. Ornithological research centers were visited as well as refuges and museums. Excellent birding was enjoyed under the guidance of local bird experts.
Since then, groups have gone to southern California, Holland, West Texas, Costa Rica, Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland, Spain, South Africa, Ireland and England, Texas-Arizona, and Greece and Turkey. Trips to Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, Nova Scotia, Spain (again), Maine and more have been taken since 2007.
1982: The club experienced both triumph and tragedy in 1982, The triumph was the successful celebration of the club’s 50th anniversary, held October at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, the birthplace of the club. Nationally known persons who took part were Dr. M. Graham Netting, Chandler S. Robbins, George H. Harrison, Hal H. Harrison and Dr. Maurice Brooks, who was the speaker for the Saturday evening banquet. Dr. Brooks was the nephew of Alonzo Beecher “A.B. “ Brooks, for whom the club is named. Roger Tory Peterson, who attended some early BBC “Forays”, could not be present, but sent an essay which was printed in the April, 1983 Redstart. Dr. George Miksch Sutton also wrote some recollections of A.B. and others, which were read by his friend Dr. Albert R. “Jay” Buckelew Jr. at the Saturday afternoon session.
On the Saturday morning nature walk, Harold O’Leary, a Wheeling actor, impersonated A.B. and recited some of his favorite poems. The actor’s deep voice reverberated through the autumnal woods, creating a memorable and lasting effect on the 200 persons present. Dr. Greg E. Eddy, President of the club, presided at the daily sessions. Thirty-three club members served on 18 committees, assuring the success of the weekend, which drew an attendance of 330.
The tragedy was the death of Charles Louis “Chuck” Conrad, at the age of 71. He had been Executive Secretary of the club since 1937, Editor of The Mail Bag from 1963 to 1981 and Editor of The Redstart in 1943. The Saturday night program at the 50th anniversary celebration was dedicated to Chuck, and a tree was planted in his memory on Saturday morning. In tribute to Chuck Conrad, Dr. Maurice Brooks said, “Few people in this world have the talent and the opportunity to guide, inspire and preserve a organization for 50 years ... There’s only one word for Chuck’s leadership, "charismatic." In its eulogy, The Mail Bag noted that, “The joy of his memory will last far longer than the pain and sorrow of his leaving. Perhaps we can be comforted by the thought that, "The soul could have no rainbow had the eye no tears." The Brooks Bird Club is a unique organization because Chuck Conrad made it so. It will be his enduring monument.”
It was difficult to imagine the club without Chuck, as he was one of the founders of the club, its only Executive Secretary and had directed every BBC “Foray” since the beginning. When the question was asked,
'Where does the club go now?" The answer was - "There is only one way to go and that is forward." Through Chuck’s leadership and guidance, he left behind trained leadership with a will to carry on. There has never been a doubt since the Brooks Bird Club was formed in 1932 that it would not survive and prosper, so let there never be any doubt henceforth. As we approached our 50th Anniversary, we began to look forward to a solid future, for there are still many things to be discovered and enjoyed.
Dr. Albert R. “Jay” Buckelew Jr., Professor of Biology at Bethany College and a member of the club since 1970, was named Administrator by the Board of Directors on July 31. The former BBC officers position of "Executive Secretary" was retired in honor of Chuck’s long service.
1984: The five-year Breeding Bird Atlas project, headed by Dr. Jay Buckelew and Dr. George Hall, began on January 1, 1984. The Atlas project was redone in 2009-2015, with data being examined currently for use in a future book printing. Both projects had the support, both in the field and in the writing, of many members of the Club.
1994: Terra Alta weekends were held at the Oglebay Mountain Camp in 1994, 1995, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. Starting in July 2007, the Terra Alta weekends have become "Bonus bird weekends.” The 2001 Bonus Bird Weekend was in Bartow, WV; 2002 was held at Oglebay's Mountain Camp at Terra Alta; 2003 was at Alpine Lake Resort in Terra Alta; 2004 was at the Mountain Camp at Terra Alta; 2005 was held at Wildernest Inn in Petersburg, WV; and 2006 and 2007 were both at the Oglebay Mountain camp at Terra Alta.
1999: The Birding Guide to West Virginia was published in 1999 as a result of Jim Bullard's hard work. The club voted at the 1999 Membership Meeting to purchase The Birds of North America series. The club became one of only three institutions in the state to purchase the valuable research tool. The series is currently in the BBC Library at the Schrader Environmental Center at Oglebay Park in Wheeling.
2002: The BBC goes online, the first website of the club is launched! Created by longtime BBC member Matt Fox.
2007: The club celebrated its 75th Anniversary with a celebration and meeting at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, where it all began. Club speakers included Chandler Robbins, Ralph Bell, Greg Eddy, Bill Beatty, J. Lawrence Smith and Dick Diener. The main speaker for the weekend was Kenn Kaufman.
2008: The Pocahontas Nature Club of Pocahontas County WV, becomes the 3rd and newest bird club to affiliate with the BBC.
2012: The club reaches its 80th birthday. The 80 anniversary/fall reunion was held at Blackwater Falls State Park and was attended by around 100 members and guests. Ted Floyd, from the American Birding Association, was the keynote speaker, and many interesting workshops, field trips and activities made it a wonderful weekend. Members that hadn’t been seen in decades made it. Super storm Sandy made sure we were cleared out early though, and just a day after we left, 30 inches of snow blanketed the region, and the lodge was closed for over a week.
The BBC published two books recently. One was a reworking of the Birding Guide to West Virginia, edited by Greg Eddy. The other was a posthumous book from J. Lawrence Smith, entitled Wings Over the Mountains, a collection of essays of the birds and birders of the state. It included many references to the BBC and its members.
2015: Spring, work begins on the development of club's new website.
2016: In spring, the BBC's new website is launched, with unlimited space, we add many new features. Some of these features include, joining online and signing up for BBC events like our annual nature Foray and Spring meeting & Fall Reunion. PayPal is now offered for payment. Also, the Mail Bag and the Redstart are now available to all online!
Albert R. Buckelew (Jay) retires from the position as the BBC Redstart editor after forty years of editing the club's scientific journal.
2017: Casey Rucker becomes the editor of the Redstart. The BBC celebrates its 85 year! Keynote speakers Bill Thompson III and Lang Elliot join in the weekend of activities.
2018: All volumes/issues of the Redstart from 1933 to the current editions are made accessible to all on the BBC website.
2019: Long time member of the Brooks Bird Club, and BBC Administrator Carl Slater passed away on December 5th. 2019
Carl had been a member of the BBC for over 60 years! He will be remembered and missed by all who knew him.
2020: All club events go on hold after our Annual Spring Meeting in March due to the Corona Virus pandemic. Foray 2020 canceled.
2021: The 2021 Foray is canceled due to continuing concerns about the pandemic. The 2021 Fall Reunion reboots the club, it's the first large BBC gathering since March of 2020.
2022: The BBC nature Foray resumes in June, after two years of being canceled, based in Terra Alta WV at Camp Galilee. The BBC celebrates its 90th anniversary in October at Hawks Nest State Park!
Membership continues to be strong, and this bodes well for the future of our 90 plus year-old organization.
Breeding Bird Census
1948-Present: The BBC has been conducting breeding bird census studies (population studies, also termed Spot Mapping) every year since 1948. Our interest in this type of study started in 1947 when two club members met with the US Fish and Wildlife Service running three census plots on Shaver's Mountain. Club members began running those three plots, now known as Gaudineer Knob, Virgin Spruce and Northern Hardwood Forest, plus an additional one on Burner Mountain, called Burner Mountain plot, in 1948, 1953, 1958, 1964. Those four plots plus two more added in 1968, Upland Black Cherry Forest and Blister Run Swamp, have been studied once in every five-year period through 2013, the only exceptions being that the Northern Hardwood Forest was not studied in 1964, 1988 or 1998, and the Gaudineer Knob plot was not studied in 1988. Other plots were run in the area some years but were never repeated.
These studies are the longest run quantitative breeding bird studies in West Virginia and also among the longest run in the United States. In other years club members ran plots at each “Foray” and “Sortie” (a smaller version of Foray no longer being conducted). Several of those plots have also been repeated.
Nearly all of these plots were of 15 acres. We usually have a limited amount of time to conduct these studies and a 110 yd. by 660 yd. plot with one center line is fairly easy to layout and run.
After John Terborgh's criticism of our methods in his book Where Have All the Birds Gone, we had a meeting with Chandler Robbins to determine if or what we could do to improve our studies. The chief result of that meeting has been to do our studies over at least seven days and enlarge them to at least 30 acres when possible.
The results have been mixed. We are conducting the studies for 7 days, but it has been difficult to always find places to layout plots of greater than 15 acres, especially plots wider than 110 yds. In spite of this, we have managed to conduct several plots of at least 30 acres, one of 45 acres, one of 60 acres and one of 75 acres. Some of these plots have been repeated.
Over the past 30 years, we lost all of the personnel that were in charge of these studies and nearly all of the personnel that conducted the studies. In spite of this, we now have many, if not more, trained, experienced and capable birders conducting these studies than 30 years ago. These studies have become one of the most popular activities at our “Forays”.
1948-Present: The BBC has been conducting breeding bird census studies (population studies, also termed Spot Mapping) every year since 1948. Our interest in this type of study started in 1947 when two club members met with the US Fish and Wildlife Service running three census plots on Shaver's Mountain. Club members began running those three plots, now known as Gaudineer Knob, Virgin Spruce and Northern Hardwood Forest, plus an additional one on Burner Mountain, called Burner Mountain plot, in 1948, 1953, 1958, 1964. Those four plots plus two more added in 1968, Upland Black Cherry Forest and Blister Run Swamp, have been studied once in every five-year period through 2013, the only exceptions being that the Northern Hardwood Forest was not studied in 1964, 1988 or 1998, and the Gaudineer Knob plot was not studied in 1988. Other plots were run in the area some years but were never repeated.
These studies are the longest run quantitative breeding bird studies in West Virginia and also among the longest run in the United States. In other years club members ran plots at each “Foray” and “Sortie” (a smaller version of Foray no longer being conducted). Several of those plots have also been repeated.
Nearly all of these plots were of 15 acres. We usually have a limited amount of time to conduct these studies and a 110 yd. by 660 yd. plot with one center line is fairly easy to layout and run.
After John Terborgh's criticism of our methods in his book Where Have All the Birds Gone, we had a meeting with Chandler Robbins to determine if or what we could do to improve our studies. The chief result of that meeting has been to do our studies over at least seven days and enlarge them to at least 30 acres when possible.
The results have been mixed. We are conducting the studies for 7 days, but it has been difficult to always find places to layout plots of greater than 15 acres, especially plots wider than 110 yds. In spite of this, we have managed to conduct several plots of at least 30 acres, one of 45 acres, one of 60 acres and one of 75 acres. Some of these plots have been repeated.
Over the past 30 years, we lost all of the personnel that were in charge of these studies and nearly all of the personnel that conducted the studies. In spite of this, we now have many, if not more, trained, experienced and capable birders conducting these studies than 30 years ago. These studies have become one of the most popular activities at our “Forays”.
The Redstart
1933-Present: In October 1933 the first issue of The Redstart was created, it was a single mimeographed sheet. Over the years the journal grew to its present more professional format. But even in the mimeographed form, The Redstart was an important contributor to West Virginia Ornithology.
George Hall once said that his book, West Virginia Birds, would not have been possible as a comprehensive history of our state's bird life without the many observations and articles published in this journal. George had written that, "It is not really possible to know what the status of our knowledge would have been had the Club not existed, but the chances are that West Virginia would have still been in the ornithological dark ages."
The Redstart has recorded the bird observations of many bird enthusiasts, both professional and amateur, over the years. The list of notable Redstart authors includes most of the outstanding ornithologists active in West Virginia: George A Hall, George M. Sutton, Hal Harrison, Maurice Brooks, Harold E. Burtt, Ralph K. Bell, and many more in recent years.
From 1977 - 2016, the journal had been under the expert editorship of Albert R. Buckelew (Jay), with layout and editing details performed by Marjorie Keatley since 1993. Jay retired at the end of 2016 as the longest running Redstart Editor (40 years) in BBC history!
Many of the finest articles are published by amateur BBC members. The best from each year receives the Floyd Bartley Memorial Award, but in many years it has been difficult to choose a winner from a list of outstanding amateur contributions.
In 2017 Casey Rucker became the new Redstart editor.
To see a list of all the Redstart Editors and which volumes and issues they edited, check out our Redstart Editors Page.
1933-Present: In October 1933 the first issue of The Redstart was created, it was a single mimeographed sheet. Over the years the journal grew to its present more professional format. But even in the mimeographed form, The Redstart was an important contributor to West Virginia Ornithology.
George Hall once said that his book, West Virginia Birds, would not have been possible as a comprehensive history of our state's bird life without the many observations and articles published in this journal. George had written that, "It is not really possible to know what the status of our knowledge would have been had the Club not existed, but the chances are that West Virginia would have still been in the ornithological dark ages."
The Redstart has recorded the bird observations of many bird enthusiasts, both professional and amateur, over the years. The list of notable Redstart authors includes most of the outstanding ornithologists active in West Virginia: George A Hall, George M. Sutton, Hal Harrison, Maurice Brooks, Harold E. Burtt, Ralph K. Bell, and many more in recent years.
From 1977 - 2016, the journal had been under the expert editorship of Albert R. Buckelew (Jay), with layout and editing details performed by Marjorie Keatley since 1993. Jay retired at the end of 2016 as the longest running Redstart Editor (40 years) in BBC history!
Many of the finest articles are published by amateur BBC members. The best from each year receives the Floyd Bartley Memorial Award, but in many years it has been difficult to choose a winner from a list of outstanding amateur contributions.
In 2017 Casey Rucker became the new Redstart editor.
To see a list of all the Redstart Editors and which volumes and issues they edited, check out our Redstart Editors Page.