On Monday 5/28/2012 I ran the Collinwood Breeding Bird Survey route. It runs from Collinwood in Wayne County east through hills and hollers into Lawrence County, through West Point and Loretto, finishing in the barrens near Union Hill south of Lawrenceburg. My species total was 73, which is on the low side of my average for this route. The main reason for this was the failure to detect several of the uncommon warblers that I often get in low numbers, but sometimes do not. American Redstart, Cerulean, Pine, Prothonotary, Blue- winged, and Black-and-white Warblers were all missed. Blue-wings were an especially notable miss as I had found fairly large totals in the past few years in the same regenerating cleacuts that briefly hosted Bachman's Sparrows in the early 2000s. Perhaps these clearcuts have regenerated too far, or perhaps I just had bad warbler luck. My total for Yellow-breasted Chats, which are abundant in these same habitats, was also relatively low at 26.
As I found the day before on the Wrigley BBS, quite a few common species were tallied in record numbers: Green Heron (5), Black Vulture (4), Hairy Woodpecker (3), Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (47), Northern Parula (20, old record was 11), Scarlet Tanager (11), and House Finch (10). As on the Wrigley Route, Scarlet Tanagers outnumbered Summers, the first time this has happened for Collinwood since 1975 when numbers of both species were considerably lower. Unlike at Wrigley, the record count of Hairy Woodpeckers did not beat the total for Downies, but it was only a 5-3 decision so it was close.
The data for some species of concern was mixed. For the third year in a row Loggerhead Shrikes were not found; they were regular in previous decades. Likewise, Grasshopper Sparrows have been missing since 2005. But, Northern Bobwhites are holding on, with a total this year of 6. This is far below the dozens that were recorded in the 20th Century, but it is better than the zeros being found now on most Tennessee BBS routes.
Bill Pulliam
Hohenwald TN
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