eBird Data from Ensor Sink Natural Area 2001-2004

View of Ensor Sink Natural Area from the intersection of Foutch Ave. and Clover Hill Rd.; the concrete runoff channel that carries storm water to the sink is visible in the right background. Photo SJS.

Ensor Sink Natural Area is a municipal park operated by the city of Cookeville, comprising about 10-15 hectares (25-32 acres).  It is located on Clover Hill Rd. near the intersection with Foutch Ave. and close to S. Walnut Ave.  The park is fairly heavily wooded and contains an outer loop trail of about 0.75 kilometers in length and a shorter inner loop trail that runs by the "sink" from which the park gets its name.

    During 120 visits to Ensor Sink Natural Area, beginning in 2001 but mainly focused on the period from late August 2003 to December 2004, I registered 105 species of birds as reflected in Table 1 (below).  The general period(s) of occurrence of these species in the park can be determined from the table, as well as the relative frequency of occurrence of the various species.

    Data from 120 checklists were placed in the eBird database.  This disposition of the data allowed for easy determination of the number of visits to the park on which each species was registered, as noted in Table 1.  For details about this important birding resource, click on this link:

    The number of visits to Ensor Sink Natural Area during each month of the survey period was the same as the number of visits made each month to Walnut Park, a municipal park located about 1.5 kilometers from Ensor Sink, allowing for fairly reliable comparison of the species found in these Cookeville city parks.  However, variability does exist in the resulting data because the average length of visits to Walnut Park was about 15 minutes, while the average length of visits to Ensor Sink Natural Area was about 25 minutes.  Additionally, although the number of days per month that visits were made to each park was the same, the actual dates on which visits were made were not always the same, although much overlap in the dates of visits exists.

Table 1. Number of Registrations of Bird Species during 120 Visits to Ensor Sink Natural Area by Month.

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