FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Lewis County January birds

[Bill Pulliam <bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Since I never got around to organizing the full-fledged dry run of  
the Lewis County CBC I want to get done this year, I instead spent  
the first part of January scouting my prospective CBC circle on my  
own.  The major purpose was to thoroughly evaluate the roads,  
habitats, and territory of the preliminary circle to see if it needs  
any adjustments.  The location is fairly constrained already by the  
need to avoid overlap with the Buffalo River CBC, my desire to keep  
it almost entirely confined within Lewis County (one of Tennessee's  
smallest counties), and of course by the desire to include the homes  
of a few likely participants.  After fine-tuning it a little bit, I  
settled on a circle centered at N35deg31.1min, W87deg31.4min, which  
is about 3 miles SE of downtown Hohenwald.  Some of the landmarks  
this incluces are the Natchez Trace Parkway from Jack's Branch to  
Fall Hollow Falls (including the Meriwether Lewis area), the Lewis  
State Forest, all of Hohenwald, Hicks Hill WMA, a teeny tiny tip of  
Laurel Hill WMA, a long stretch of the Buffalo River, and vast  
expanses of hillbilly holler country, paper company and gun club  
holdings, north to Kimmins, west and south to Buffalo Valley, and  
east to Gordonsburg and the NACO Natchez Trace resort.  Of necessity,  
the circle excludes the easternmost parts of the county, so The Farm  
and the Swan Land Trust holdings are not in it.  The circle center is  
only 15.3 miles from the center of the Buffalo River circle, so  
there's no room to go any farther east without overlapping.  Plus, it  
would lose MY house...

To scout this area I drew up 4 preliminary party territories  
(optimistically I'm hoping to round up a total of 4 qualified party  
leaders for the first run next year).  I then split each territory in  
half, and spent one morning (about 4 hours) in each semi- territory.   
Much of my attention was taken up by negotiating the roads using our  
horribly outdated and inaccurate county road map (GoogleMaps and all  
the others just by their info from the local gov'ts, so the online  
maps are just as inaccurate as the 20 year old paper ones).  My  
birding was almost entirely within 20 feet of my truck, spishing and  
screech-owl tooting, at quick roadside stops.  If you've  never tried  
to scout out an entire CBC circle in detail, let me tell you they are  
HUGE.  But the effort was definitely worthwhile, as I now have piles  
of info on where habitats, birds, and roads really are, so I can draw  
up more balanced party territories and give the leaders lots of info  
to help them out.  As many of y'all know from your own experience on  
understaffed small-town CBCs, even 1/4 of a count circle is far more  
than any single party can really cover in a day, so good scouting and  
planning are essential.

My bird tallies actually are pretty good, considering how rushed and  
distracted by navigation and note taking I was.  All told, between  
January 6th and 17th (2008) I spent 32 hours out, driving 383 miles.   
My totals for the whole period are:

Canada Goose  157
Wild Turkey  42
Northern Bobwhite  15
Pied-billed Grebe  2
Great Blue Heron  3
Black Vulture  69
Turkey Vulture  57
Cooper's Hawk  1
Red-shouldered Hawk  17
Red-tailed Hawk  17
American Kestrel  11
Killdeer  40
American Woodcock  2
Rock Pigeon  67
Eurasian Collared-Dove  10
Mourning Dove  52
Eastern Screech-Owl  1
Barred Owl  1
Belted Kingfisher  5
Red-bellied Woodpecker  16
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker  2
Downy Woodpecker  29
Hairy Woodpecker  10
Northern Flicker  27
Pileated Woodpecker  24
Eastern Phoebe  3
LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE  1
Blue Jay  31
American Crow  374
Horned Lark  1
Carolina Chickadee  105
Tufted Titmouse  130
Red-breasted Nuthatch  2
White-breasted Nuthatch  54
Brown Creeper  8
Carolina Wren  121
Winter Wren  21
Golden-crowned Kinglet  84
Ruby-crowned Kinglet  9
Eastern Bluebird  211
Hermit Thrush  18
American Robin  24
Northern Mockingbird  34
Brown Thrasher  1
European Starling  751
Cedar Waxwing  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler  15
Eastern Towhee  34
Chipping Sparrow  53
Field Sparrow  441
Savannah Sparrow  3
Fox Sparrow  22
Song Sparrow  222
LINCOLN'S SPARROW  1
Swamp Sparrow  76
White-throated Sparrow  429
White-crowned Sparrow  12
Dark-eyed Junco  644
Northern Cardinal  198
Red-winged Blackbird  72
Eastern Meadowlark  163
Common Grackle  2
Brown-headed Cowbird  20
Purple Finch  18
House Finch  51
American Goldfinch  77
House Sparrow  95

Total species: 67

I was quite pleased with these results, and with the diversity of  
habitats the circle contains.  As you can tell, there is very little  
open water habitat.  Of the four largest lakes in the circle, only  
one (Napier Lake) is visible from a public road.  The others are  
entirely ringed by private land; one sits in the middle of the  
Elephant Sanctuary, which is among the most heavily secured,  
fortified, and restricted 1000 acres of forest the entire state (for  
obvious reasons).  I might be able to arrange access to some of the  
other lakes, but even so, smallish lakes in the Highland Rim rarely  
produce much in the way of waterfowl anyway.

Weedy fields, fencerows, and brushy woodland edges are the forte of  
this circle.  I was especially happy with the total of 9 sparrow  
species (not counting Junco).  The Lincoln's Sparrow is the first I  
have ever found in this area in midwinter; it was in a brushpile with  
many other sparrows on the west side of Highway 99 just south of the  
community of Riverside.  The shrike was the first I have found in  
Lewis County ever; it was also along highway 99, this time just east  
of Riverside.  That is an area I have not birded regularly in the  
past; I'd not be surprised if the shrike is a regular there.  The two  
biggest "misses," Red-headed Woodpecker and Pine Warbler, are species  
that seem to be down throughout the area this year.  Other "misses,"  
like Wood Duck and Sharp-shinned Hawk, are always difficult in winter  
here.  I didn't do any owling other than what I heard around my own  
farm in the evenings,

It will be interesting to see what turns up next year with real  
parties devoting full attention to the birds!

Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN

=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen.  The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
      To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
                    tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________ 
                To unsubscribe, send email to:
                 tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
            with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
  TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 
       Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
        endorse the views or opinions expressed
        by the members of this discussion group.
 
         Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
                 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                ------------------------------
                Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
                         Cleveland, OH
                -------------------------------
               Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
                          Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
         
          Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
              web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                          ARCHIVES
 TN-Bird Net Archives at http://www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/

                  EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com

_____________________________________________________________