FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Tiptonville BBS (Lake-Obion Cos.) + others

[Bill Pulliam <bb551@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This morning (6/12/07) made my second year on the Tiptonville BBS  
route, which runs from just south of Black Bayou along highway 78 in  
Lake County, southwards along the south shore of Reelfoot Lake and  
into Obion County, then eastwards from the delta up into the bluff  
forest and uplands.  I hit a benchmark in my lifetime BBS career: A  
total of of 81 species, my first total ever over 80.  This route has  
been run nearly every year since the BBS began 40 years ago, so I was  
extremely surprised that I found 6 species today that had not been  
reported from the route before.  For comparison, last year, my first  
year on the route, I only found one new species for the route, and  
that one only one individual.  It makes you wonder if the stressful  
weather (freeze then drought) has birds wandering.  The new species  
this year were:

Least Tern - 1
Cooper's Hawk - 1
Eurasian Collared Dove - 6
Worm-eating Warbler - 3
Pine Warbler - 1Grasshopper Sparrow - 3

I also had a single Swainson's Warbler, the first time that species  
has been reported for the route since the 1960's.  The Collared Doves  
are just a sign of the times.  But the other five have me puzzled.   
I'm accustomed to my own "observer effect" being higher than average  
totals for "ear" birds, and average to slightly below average totals  
for "eye" birds.  But that doesn't account for this, as Least Tern  
and Cooper's Hawk are both "eye" birds and one of the Worm-eatings  
was a silent bird seen foraging about 10 feet from my head.  And I  
ran this route last year without finding any of these species.  Curious.

Elsewhere in the area yesterday (6/11/07), I had a Swainson's Warbler  
singing at Black Bayou but no Bell's Vireo.

Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN




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