[Bristol-Birds] new Big Year record in northeast Tenn
- From: "Richard Knight" <rknight8@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 7 Jan 2010 14:42:36 -0500
A Big Year in birding is an attempt to see as many species as possible within a
prescribed area within a calendar year. For members of the Herndon Chapter of
TOS, the area consists of the five county area of Northeast Tenn: Carter,
Johnson,
Sullivan, Unicoi, & Washington Counties.
In 2000, Howard Langridge set a Big Year record for this five-county area by
observing 237 species. The previous record was 231 species seen by Brian Cross
in 1989.
Most local birders, including myself, thought that Howard's record number
was untouchable. However, in 2006 I was able to match that number.
As fans of sports statistics know, records are meant to be broken. I did just
that in
2009 by seeing 241 species in the five-county area. Some lucky, hard-working
birder may beat that someday.
By month, I added the following number of species to my 2009 list:
Jan - 100
Feb - 5
Mar - 18
Apr - 58
May - 32
Jun - 2
Jul - 2
Aug - 8
Sep - 6
Oct - 8
Nov - 1
Dec - 1.
In the attached document is a list of all species seen on the three top Big
Years
(i.e., Howard in 2000, RK in 2006 & 2009).
In combination, these three lists contain 263 species, which is 82% of the
total
number of species ever recorded in the area; 218 of these species occur on all
three lists, while 29 are found on just one list.
2009 was a good year for rarities in the area and about a half dozen other local
birders topped the 200 species mark for the year. Congrats to them.
######################
Rick Knight
Johnson City, TN
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