Every morning recently there has been a large number of American Robins passing over my farm from east to west, apparently leaving a roost. They mostly pass over in small groups, intermittently, for quite a while. I had been putting them down in my notes in daily totals of a couple of hundred or so, just as an estimate. This morning (Dec. 28th 2008) I was out a bit earlier than usual, and I when the robins started passing over I decided I would actually count them this time. So I counted.. and I counted... and I counted... noticing that these small groups were passing over from horizon to horizon and I was doubtless missing many of them. At a tally of 2152 Robins my brain had grown weary of the count; but the robins kept coming. I finished the rest of my morning rounds, while robins kept passing over in small groups every few minutes, and just put down 2500 as a conservative estimate. If I had the persistence to count the entire exodus it would probably total a couple of thousand more than what I tallied this morning. Bill Pulliam, western Lewis County, 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/ 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 _____________________________________________________________