FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] House Wren--a few more comments

[Don Miller <raincrow@xxxxxxx>]

June 15, 2006

I've read the House Wren posts with interest and thought I'd share a few 
thoughts.

Not surprisingly, since the House Wren invasion in Tennessee started in 
the northeastern part of the state in the early to mid-1900's, the 
species is fairly common to common in Greene County.  I live about 2.5 
miles from where I work in Greeneville and count about a half dozen to 
ten House Wrens every day in spring and early summer while I'm going to 
and from work.  On April 24 this year, I found 41 in and around 
Greeneville in only about 2.5 hours' time.  I had numerous obligations 
that day that prevented me from further birding, but I believe that I 
could easily have topped 75 without much strain.

I've also noticed that House Wrens are easy to find in Washington County 
(no surprise, here, of course), but when I've traveled southwest into 
Cocke, Jefferson, Knox, and other counties, I've had a harder time 
finding them.  There appears to be a gradient of occurrence as one moves 
southward and westward from northeast Tennessee, with declining numbers 
as one moves farther away from the northeastern tip of the state.  
Nicholson's Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Tennessee suggests that this 
is the case, as does Robinson's An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of 
Tennessee.

The situation with House Wrens is a good opportunity for birders around 
the state to gather data and examine how patterns of occurrence are 
changing over time. 

Don Miller
Greeneville, Greene Co., TN
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