FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Northern Mockingbird expansion in the Southern Appalachians

[Don Miller <raincrow@xxxxxxx>]

Wallace Coffey, Roger Mayhorn, and other area birders,

When I was growing up in Watauga County, North Carolina in the 1970's, I 
almost never saw a mockingbird.  Catbirds and thrashers were quite 
common--yearly nesters on my grandparents' property, in fact--but 
mockingbirds were almost impossible to find.  The elevation where we 
lived was in the 2500-3000 foot range, and Watauga County in general is 
high elevation.  I haven't visited Watauga often enough in recent years 
to get a firm sense of mockingbird frequency today, so I can't comment 
on the species status now, but I think it's very interesting that it has 
expanded into areas in southwest Virginia and eastern Kentucky where it 
was formerly absent.

It's important to keep our eye on common species and not take them for 
granted.  Bird life is not static, but it's easy to get lulled into a 
sense that we know everything important about the birds that we 
encounter all the time.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Let's all pay closer attention to the details . . . .

Don Miller
Greeneville, TN
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