[Bristol-Birds] Knight's anticipated book gains major momentum

The BIRDS of 
   Northeast Tennessee

            An Annotated Checklist
                 by Richard L. Knight
                               2008
  AN IN PROGRESS                                                   Second 
Edition
  Update

 The production team for the much-anticipated
second edition of Rick Knight's book, which has
served as our daily beacon for bird study in the
region for nearly 15 years, advances with an
enthusiastic and quickened cadence.

This will be the fifth regional annotated checklist
of birds for the region -- three of Northeast TN
and two of SW Virginia.

All have been published by the Bristol Bird Club
which brings an experienced group of fundraisers,
finance managers, production managers and 
skilled designers to coordinate the project, not
to mention modern printing expertise.

A meeting this afternoon got the first real glimpse
at the artistic design, layout templates and the
fabulous photography of regional birders.

Here, in these pages, the readers will, for the first
time, take pride in the creativity and skill of our
many talented regional photographers.  Birds 
flash from the pages thru a rainbow of living 
color which brings it all right into your hands.
They peek at you from unexpected places and 
you see them in new and interesting ways.

Hundreds of hours of editing, layout, classy design
and careful craftsmanship for the birder's needs
will be reflected from the availability of state-of-the-art
commercial printing.

It has been a labor of love as Knight and others 
carefully followed reports online and gathered the
latest in the compilation of great bird records from
a region that has unsurpassed habitat and diversity
in these Southern Appalachians.  Just the final
compilation and conversion to copy has taken 
Knight well over two years.

Mike Poe continues to get image after image of
photos pouring in as birders contribute their best
work.  As arguably the best eye and most knowledgeable
bird photographer of our region, Mike brings skills we
have not enjoyed in prior years.  His service as photo
editor and layout consultant is astounding.

Birders are carrying in historic images in black and
white, color slides that capture history, color prints
from years gone bye and CD's of their images.  Many
are being transmitted from far away and next-door
using e-mail.

Everyday our mailbox has another check or e-mails
arrive with pledges.  It is a very costly project and 
the outpouring of birders pitching in every way
has been amazing.  We have some ways to go to
get the funding together.  We can't yet see the light
at the end of this exciting tunnel.

Zellie Earnest and Bill Grigsby are hard at work raising
major funds from the Kingsport area.  Grigsby follows
up with another appointment next week. 

Rob Biller, this week, produced a fine, new map of
the region and was at Knight's house to go over it
with him.  Biller is a graduate of the geography
department of East Tennessee State University
and has had years of experience working
with commercial and now Johnson City municipal 
surveying staff.

Birders like Ron Carrico have begun digging deep
in their files for historic photos.  Knight has been
canvassing his files.  I begin to dig further come Sunday.

It is not too late for you to think deeply about what you
feel would be visually or historically valuable and
contact Mike Poe or simply send it on.

In a fast-pace world of colorful communications and
complete and detailed transmissions of data and images,
a regional bird book cries out with demands for a new
approach and new utility that such publications have
not known or needed in past years.

These are difficult, challenging and demanding times for
anyone producing a regional bird book.  Our birders have
modern expectations and authors and production teams
need to deliver.

It all moves to another level.  It races on with a pace that
gains momentum with each key stroke and each new
digital capability.  A great regional bird book (an annotated
checklist such as this) begs a forward, progressive book.

Tom McNeil is down to what is likely the last round of
revisions to the season distribution tables, with only minor
corrections remaining.  The time-demanding graphics are
finished.

Knight has completed virtually everything except cutlines,
a few lines in the acknowledgements, sign off on overall
graphics, theme direction and visual image satisfaction
any good author wants.  He has a wonderful reputation
for dealing with accuracy and details, let alone his vast
knowledge of area birds and his nationally-known and
acknowledged birding skills.

Others have edited the text and records and made
recommendations to style handling, regional balance
and updates for some data.  It has been an undertaking.

To all of the many contributors, whether you produced 
the many hundreds of new finds and posted your records
and findings on Bristol Birds Net, or spent hours waiting to
get those great bird images thru your lenses, you will be
proud.

All of us will be very gratified to have for our own the Second
Edition of the classic book -- The Birds of Northeast Tennessee.
It is a valuable annotated checklist that many of us have lived
with for years and many have barely been able to live without
for all of the years it has been out of print.

I hope you have contributed to helping the Bristol Bird Club
make another great bird book available for the birders of our
region and for the decades to come as we contribute another 
chapter in ornithological history.  

Let's go birding.......

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN

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