As I contemplete the beginning of my 33rd year of participation in the federal Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) program, I am once again hopeful that this will be the year when coverage of the state's 47 BBS routes will return to the level of coverage experienced during the 1970s and 1980s when Joe Howell and Katherine Goodpasture were heading up the BBS effort in Tennessee. As anyone in the know knows, BBS coverage in TN since the late 1980s has fallen off from those heady decades, with anywhere from three to nine TN BBS routes not being covered in any given year. To some, the current BBS situation in TN is not cause for worry, and perhaps they have a better handle on the situation than I have, but I still think that BBS coverage in our state can, and should, return to the days of Joe and Katherine. After all, if you set the bar of excellence low enough, any lame performance can be called excellent, but this does not mean that true excellence was actually achieved. So, to all of you who have TN BBS routes to run this year, get out there and run them! Steve Stedman Cookeville, TN (in the Upper Cumberland Region) Note: a page of my website is devoted to a summary of BBS efforts in Tennessee since 1966; have a look. Also note: results for 5 of 6 UCR Spring Bird Counts conducted this spring are now posted at my website. Final note: results of the 2008 UCR Foray in DeKalb County, including most of the raw date, are beginning to be assembled at my website. =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ MAP RESOURCES Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________