This morning (6/12/07) made my second year on the Tiptonville BBS route, which runs from just south of Black Bayou along highway 78 in Lake County, southwards along the south shore of Reelfoot Lake and into Obion County, then eastwards from the delta up into the bluff forest and uplands. I hit a benchmark in my lifetime BBS career: A total of of 81 species, my first total ever over 80. This route has been run nearly every year since the BBS began 40 years ago, so I was extremely surprised that I found 6 species today that had not been reported from the route before. For comparison, last year, my first year on the route, I only found one new species for the route, and that one only one individual. It makes you wonder if the stressful weather (freeze then drought) has birds wandering. The new species this year were: Least Tern - 1 Cooper's Hawk - 1 Eurasian Collared Dove - 6 Worm-eating Warbler - 3 Pine Warbler - 1Grasshopper Sparrow - 3 I also had a single Swainson's Warbler, the first time that species has been reported for the route since the 1960's. The Collared Doves are just a sign of the times. But the other five have me puzzled. I'm accustomed to my own "observer effect" being higher than average totals for "ear" birds, and average to slightly below average totals for "eye" birds. But that doesn't account for this, as Least Tern and Cooper's Hawk are both "eye" birds and one of the Worm-eatings was a silent bird seen foraging about 10 feet from my head. And I ran this route last year without finding any of these species. Curious. Elsewhere in the area yesterday (6/11/07), I had a Swainson's Warbler singing at Black Bayou but no Bell's Vireo. Bill Pulliam Hohenwald TN =================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/ EXCELLENT MAP RESOURCES Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________