Tom Byrnes Named "Volunteer of the Month"

Mr. Flicker, known to us as Tom Byrnes, was named "Volunteer of the Month" by the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. The news came out in the latest ASWP Bulletin. I'm proud to say Tommy is also an active Three Rivers Birding Club member. In fact, he's one of the newest and most enthusiastic birders around.

The following article that appeared in the January-February, 2003 issue of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania's Bulletin Newsletter is reprinted here with permission.

Tom Byrnes credits Beechwood with changing his life. He now has an avid hobby that keeps him interested after work, keeps his wife happy and has brought him into the larger community of birders in Pittsburgh. It all started when he began to listen to the Scott Shalloway show on the car radio as he drove home from work each day. Scott often promotes Beechwood on the show and Joanne Davis, who was an educator at Beechwood at the time, often hosted the show when Scott was away. So, even though Tom lives near Beechwood, it wasn't until Scott Shalloway pointed him in our direction that he decided to check us out.

When a shift change at work permitted it, he enrolled in Beechwood's volunteer naturalist training for six Monday mornings. "I thought it was great!", he says. "I asked a lot of questions. They really let you know what was going on. I was amazed going out on the trails." He says that he only wishes he had become a volunteer naturalist sooner, so that he could share his knowledge and enthusiasm with his kids while they were still in elementary school.

During the time when he was listening to the Scott Shalloway show, Tom and some co-workers were watching a bald eagle inhabiting the area along the riverfront in the Sharpsburg/Aspinwall area where they worked. Tom called Shalloway to report it. Soon, he was calling in quite frequently. Once when he called to report a Flicker in his back yard, his call was taken just after another birder who called himself "Mr. Bluebird". When Tom got on and Scott asked him who he was, tom just naturally said, "This is Mr. Flicker", a name he has been known by on Scott's show ever since. However, he didn't really consider himself a birder then. It was only after becoming a member of Friends of Audubon and coming to the monthly lecture meetings that he met Jack Solomon and Mike Fialkovich, two of Pittsburgh's foremost birders. He began going on birding outings with them and became involved in the newly formed Three Rivers Birding Club. Now he has a dozen feeders at his house, including one exclusively for the squirrels to keep them away from the others.

Tom's wife Janet, who works for the Fox Chapel School District, is pleased with his new-found enthusiasm. "I guess there are worse things I could be doing after work". Tom says. "Although she's starting to look dismayed at the clutter in the garage since I took up birding." Besides being a volunteer naturalist, Tom has been active in manning Beechwood's exhibit table at such events as the Harry Potter movie premiers at the Waterworks Cinema and the Venture Outdoors events at Washington's Landing in Pittsburgh, where he met and talked with Scott Shalloway in person. Thanks, Scott, we really owe you one for Tom.