[TN-Bird] Re: Pace Point CBC
- From: mgreene@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 15:10:01 -0500
It has been discussed for several years about having a CBC on the Big
Sandy Unit of the Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge which includes Pace
Point. I remember talking it over with the Biologist there several years
ago. I think that it's a good idea and will no doubt be a successful
count.
There's a lot of reasons why most counts are held on Saturday. The most
obvious is that is the day that the most birders can normally help. A
case in point is the Reelfoot Lake CBC. I took over as compiler of this
count in 1993 and this count has traditionally had the highest number of
species in the state. We always do it on the first Saturday of the count
period. Why? Partly because I like to do the count on the same weekend
every year for comparison between years. But another important reason is
that this count had been done in the past during the week with varying
success. I remember one year (1988) they did it on a week day and had
only 3 folks show up and 2 of those were Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge
employees! They had a species count of 68! Since 1980, with the
exception of 1989 when the lake was frozen solid (and still managed 79
species), this count has not been below 90 species! Since 1993 (the year
we began always having the count on the first Saturday) we have not been
below 108 species and our average per year is 111 species!
Would that number drop if we had the count on, say, a Tuesday this year?
You better believe it. There may be a few other factors involved in
certain years but with the Reelfoot Lake count I can look at the years
that this count was held during the week and compare them to when the
count was held on a Saturday and the weekday counts have a lower average
number of birders and a lower average number of species. Is this a
coincidence? I don't think so. And the thing to remember here is that
we're talking about the traditional top count in the state over the years.
Some folks would still come no matter what day of the week the count was
held on (me included) but we would lose several birders. Those are the
facts.
That being said I look forward to the Pace Point CBC.
Good birding,
Mark Greene
Trenton, TN
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
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
jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
========================================================
Other related posts:
