[TN-Bird] Common Redpoll: Another Birding First

It was October of 1971 and I was a teenager in secondary school in South 
Woodstock, Vermont when the only Ph.D. (Cornell, ornithology) on the faculty 
invited me birding for my first time.  The school required that all students 
work in some non-scholarly capacity and instead of toiling away on the school's 
farm (I was born and raised in New York City with little of the heritable 
bucolic in me), I had agreed that with the coming spring semester I would help 
out with the school's bird banding station (my first job would be to help 
complete the construction of what would ultimately be a banding operation of 
more than 50 mist nets).   It was either our first or second stop of the trip.  
 With my mentor's patience advice, borrowed Bushnell binoculars and a bird 
guide (it must have been the Golden Birds of North America by Chandler Robbins, 
et al.), I identified a male Common Redpoll.  While I already knew some very 
common birds, this was my very first species as a birder.  Now, 36 years and 
6,428 total ticks later I found the Hohenwald redpoll this morning at 7:12.  
Thanks again for Bill Pulliam and his mother, Betsy Russell.
For Nashville area birders who have yet to see the bird, one alternative route 
is to use Natchez Trace Pkwy that cuts through Hohenwald (exit at Highway 412). 
 On my way back from about 7:30 to 8:15 (ending at Leipers Fork) I saw only 
eight cars.  On the weekend the traffic should increase but for wildlife and 
the best scenery around it is rather better than I-65.

Kevin Breault
Brentwood, TN
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