An eBird-Assisted Presentation of Bird Data Collected at Cane Creek Park, Cookeville, Putnam County, Tennessee, 1994-2003

    Cane Creek Park, located in west Cookeville, Putnam County, Tennessee, is a municipal park encompassing about 200 acres including a lake created by impounding Cane Creek.  The primary habitats in the park are open water (56 acres), deciduous woodland (55 acres), mixed woodland (5 acres), mowed grassland (65 acres), scrub-shrub (15 acres), and marsh/wetland bordering the lake (5 acres).  A walking trail (c. 1.5 miles) loops around the lake and is the principal route of traveling counts (lasting 30-150 minutes and usually including all species encountered during the timed period) made in the park.  A boat ramp providing access to the lake for recreational use is the primary site of stationary counts (usually lasting 5-30 minutes and usually including all species encountered during the timed period) made in the park.  Casual counts (usually lasting 5-30 minutes and usually not including all species seen or heard) are also included in the surveys made in the park.

    All 216 species historically reported in Cane Creek Park are listed below.  Eight species and one subspecies with names in red were not recorded on counts conducted from 1994 to 2003; the remaining 208 species were noted at least once during that period.

    Data from 973 check-lists collected from 1994 to 2003  were entered into the eBird database.  Annual reports were generated by the eBird program from these data. These reports listed the total species recorded during the year, the number of check-lists submitted during the year, and the cumulative list of species recorded on all checklists for the year; this information is included in the table below.

    Survey effort was not uniform from year to year.  In particular, 1994 and 1997 were years when less effort was expended to collect data than during the other eight years.  Perhaps as a result of the decreased effort during these years, fewer species were recorded than were recorded in years with a greater level of effort.  However, some species cohorts do not reflect the lesser effort expended in 1994 and 1997.  For instance, the numbers of species of geese and ducks reported in 1994 and 1997 do not appear to reflect the lesser effort occurring in those years; numbers of species of warblers reveal some reduction of species richness in 1994 but not in 1997.  Numbers  of species of diurnal raptors appear to reflect the lesser effort made in 1994 and 1997, but also show a decline in 2001 that is probably not correlated with effort.

    Nocturnal species are poorly represented in the table below because the survey data were collected exclusively during daylight hours, mainly during early to mid-morning (0645-1000 CDT/CST).

    The relative abundance of the species in the local area can be determined fairly accurately from the number of years in which a given species was recorded during the ten years of the survey (e. g., Bufflehead [recorded ten years] is more common [or at least more commonly detected] than Surf Scoter [recorded three years]; Swainson's Thrush [recorded ten years] is more common [or at least more commonly detected] than Veery [recorded five years]).

    Trends in some species' population level can be inferred from the data in the table.   For instance, the absence of records of Loggerhead Shrike during the decade probably reflects that species' continuing, long-term decline in the local area, as well as within the surrounding Upper Cumberland Region, in Tennessee, and across the continent.  The lack of records of Gray-cheeked Thrush from 1999 to 2003, after being recorded in four years from 1994 to 1998, may reflect a decline in that species' migrant population in the area.

    Changes in the status of some species in the park can be inferred from the survey data.  Northern Bobwhites almost disappeared from the park by the end of the period, being recorded just once each in 2002 and 2003, after being recorded 3-14 times per year from 1994 to 2001; reduction in the amount of shrub-scrub habitat in the park probably accounts for some of the decrease in this species' numbers, but its decline mirrors a long-term decline reflected by other bird databases (i.e., the national BBS). Willow Flycatchers were apparently absent from the park from 1994 to 1998, but were recorded regularly in low numbers from 1999 to 2003, indicating they may have colonized the park midway through the survey decade.

Acknowledgments

    I am extremely grateful to the eBird team originally led by Michael Powers and now led by Brian Sullivan for putting the eBird program together and for running it so capably.

    I am also grateful to the many person who have accompanied me on birdwalks at Cane Creek Park during the past decade.  An undoubtedly very incomplete list of these persons follows: Heather Bolte, Frank Bulow, Ivan L. Cordrey, Tommy L. Curtis, Virginia Curtis, Roseanna Denton, Neal Dziepak, Tommy Edwards, Ginger K. Ensor, Janie C. Finch, Richard C. Finch, Susan H. Ford, Graham S. Kash, Nancy S. Layzer, Kenneth L. Morgan, John C. Owens, Michael P. O'Rourke, Ann M. Sanders, Michael A. Sanders, Thomas Saya, Jeanie C. Schmitzer, Barbara H. Stedman, Winston A. Walden, Carol D. Williams, Joseph L. Williams.

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