[TN-Bird] Re: Pace Point CBC

It has been discussed for several years about having a CBC on the Big 
Sandy Unit of the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge which includes Pace 
Point.  I remember talking it over with the Biologist there several years 
ago.  I think that it's a good idea and will no doubt be a successful 
count. 
There's a lot of reasons why most counts are held on Saturday.  The most 
obvious is that is the day that the most birders can normally help.  A 
case in point is the Reelfoot Lake CBC.  I took over as compiler of this 
count in 1993 and this count has traditionally had the highest number of 
species in the state.  We always do it on the first Saturday of the count 
period.  Why?  Partly because I like to do the count on the same weekend 
every year for comparison between years.  But another important reason is 
that this count had been done in the past during the week with varying 
success.  I remember one year (1988) they did it on a week day and had 
only 3 folks show up and 2 of those were Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge 
employees!  They had a species count of 68!  Since 1980, with the 
exception of 1989 when the lake was frozen solid (and still managed 79 
species), this count has not been below 90 species!  Since 1993 (the year 
we began always having the count on the first Saturday) we have not been 
below 108 species and our average per year is 111 species! 

Would that number drop if we had the count on, say, a Tuesday this year? 
You better believe it.  There may be a few other factors involved in 
certain years but with the Reelfoot Lake count I can look at the years 
that this count was held during the week and compare them to when the 
count was held on a Saturday and the weekday counts have a lower average 
number of birders and a lower average number of species.  Is this a 
coincidence?  I don't think so.  And the thing to remember here is that 
we're talking about the traditional top count in the state over the years. 
 Some folks would still come no matter what day of the week the count was 
held on (me included) but we would lose several birders.  Those are the 
facts.

That being said I look forward to the Pace Point CBC.

Good birding,

Mark Greene
Trenton, TN

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