So, I've finally made a Blogpost about my time in Tennessee. The reasons are partly beyond my control and some definitely within my control. I didn't have internet in the state park, and I knew it was going to be a long undertaking.As before, I'll break down this post into sections, but I'm going to keep it all in one post this time.
Click below to jump to a section:
-Job description-
-Succession-
-Hybridization-
-Nest Searching-
-Biodiversity-
-Elk-
-Tennessee-
-Cove Lake State Park-
__________________________________________________________________
Q: So what exactly was I doing there anyway?A: I worked for the University of Tennessee, and specifically a graduate student (Katie Percy). She is studying a threatened song bird here in the Eastern United States called the Golden-winged Warbler. The majority of her work involves nest searching (more on that to come). I stayed in a couple of travel trailers in Cove lake State Park in Caryville, Tn. The study sites were on the mountain tops only a 30 minute drive up from the park. It was done on state owned Wildlife Management Area and National Coal land. This project ran from April 25th-July 15th.
With all that over with lets start with everything project related.
The Golden-winged Warbler
No, this is not the Golden-cheeked Warbler I worked on last year. This year I worked with a Golden-winged Warbler. (Remember to click on the underlined and colored text to see more information)
This is a Golden-winged Warbler
This is a Golden-cheeked Warbler. I did not work on this this summer
Instead, I worked on THIS. A Golden-winged Warbler
As far as warblers go, they are not closely related, and in seperate genus's. Both birds occupy very different habitat. You would not find them together in the United States, except under the rarest of circumstances. (The Golden-wing is a trans-gulf migrant while the Golden-cheek is a mainland migrant)
The Golden-winged Warbler is a near threatened species that is currently up for the Endangered Species listing.
It is an early successional species thats declining due to habitat loss and hybridization with the closely related Blue-winged Warbler.
_________________________________
Succession in the biological world is simply the gradual progress of an ecosystem. Every ecosystem has a beginning and end. Plant growth and colonizing rates vary greatly. Some grasses may grow up in days/weeks while large broadleaf treas (oaks, maples, etc.) never stop growing. With the growth of the large slow growing broadleaf trees, there's a lessening of the weedy and shrubby plants as available light decreases. This leads to a slow change in the habitat's plant structure. An example earliest succession would be a blank dirt field with poor nutrients. And the farthest iteration would be the Redwood forests and Old growth forests of the Northwest (Old growth has disappeared in the East).
Imagine an empty lot, nothing but dirt. The first thing to appear are weeds, hardy species that are great at colonizing. As the roots take hold and change the soil composition, grasses pop up. Eventually as the lot turns into a grassy/weedy field, the smaller shrubs and trees begin colonizing (riding the wind perhaps). Five years later, there's small saplings and shrubs in the field. Around the saplings and shrubs you'd lose many grasses and weeds with lessening of sunlight. Twenty years later, the saplings have grown into full trees, grass has essentially disappeared locally, and the shrubs are less dominate. 30-100 years later (depending on trees) the shrubs have all but disappeared, except in small pockets of sunlight, and the trees have grown to towering heights. The ground is now bare except a short layer of struggling weeds and forbes. At the tail end of this process trees naturally fall down or die. The downed trees and standing snags create new openings in the canopy. This special mosaic creates a sterotypical Old Growth forest.
This is succession, habitats get knocked back to early periods due to fire, wind, storms, or human involvement.
Golden-winged Warblers nest in early succession habitats, the habitats with plentiful grass and bushes. Specifically they love the habitats that have sparse tall trees or snags (dead standing trees), and are within 200 feet of a mature forest. All three layers, a grass layer, shrub layer, and tall tree layer. This pickiness lead to their current decline, but actually lead to their earlier population increase!
Over the last 100 or so years, the United States went through a huge population increase. This lead to an increase in foresting and coal mining. The destruction of the old-growth forest actually increased the amount of suitable habitat for the Golden-winged Warbler. With the introduction of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 and the beginning of the global conservation movement many of these activities were retarded or halted. Areas that were once destroyed were allowed to grow back, reforestation began. With the reforestation, and return to mature forests, the Golden-winged's numbers began to decline again.
____________________________
The Golden-winged Warblers suffer from another problem, hybridization with Blue-winged Warblers.
The close cousin, the Blue-winged Warbler.
While morphologically (meaning: visually) different from a Golden-winged Warbler, phenotypically (meaning: genetically), its habits, preferences, and song are quite similar. These two are so genetically similar that they can make fully functional offspring capable of mating. Hybridization is a common and fundamentally important aspect of evolution. The mixing of genes and loss of that distinct species in the next generation is very difficult to deal with by an already struggling species.
The interesting thing about these two species, is their two common hybrid outcomes.
As a reference
Golden-Winged Warbler on the left/Blue-winged Warbler on the right
The 'Brewsters Warbler' is simply a cross between a Golden-wing and a Blue-wing:
Instead, I worked on THIS. A Golden-winged WarblerAs far as warblers go, they are not closely related, and in seperate genus's. Both birds occupy very different habitat. You would not find them together in the United States, except under the rarest of circumstances. (The Golden-wing is a trans-gulf migrant while the Golden-cheek is a mainland migrant)
The Golden-winged Warbler is a near threatened species that is currently up for the Endangered Species listing.
It is an early successional species thats declining due to habitat loss and hybridization with the closely related Blue-winged Warbler.
_________________________________
Succession in the biological world is simply the gradual progress of an ecosystem. Every ecosystem has a beginning and end. Plant growth and colonizing rates vary greatly. Some grasses may grow up in days/weeks while large broadleaf treas (oaks, maples, etc.) never stop growing. With the growth of the large slow growing broadleaf trees, there's a lessening of the weedy and shrubby plants as available light decreases. This leads to a slow change in the habitat's plant structure. An example earliest succession would be a blank dirt field with poor nutrients. And the farthest iteration would be the Redwood forests and Old growth forests of the Northwest (Old growth has disappeared in the East).
Imagine an empty lot, nothing but dirt. The first thing to appear are weeds, hardy species that are great at colonizing. As the roots take hold and change the soil composition, grasses pop up. Eventually as the lot turns into a grassy/weedy field, the smaller shrubs and trees begin colonizing (riding the wind perhaps). Five years later, there's small saplings and shrubs in the field. Around the saplings and shrubs you'd lose many grasses and weeds with lessening of sunlight. Twenty years later, the saplings have grown into full trees, grass has essentially disappeared locally, and the shrubs are less dominate. 30-100 years later (depending on trees) the shrubs have all but disappeared, except in small pockets of sunlight, and the trees have grown to towering heights. The ground is now bare except a short layer of struggling weeds and forbes. At the tail end of this process trees naturally fall down or die. The downed trees and standing snags create new openings in the canopy. This special mosaic creates a sterotypical Old Growth forest.This is succession, habitats get knocked back to early periods due to fire, wind, storms, or human involvement.
Golden-winged Warblers nest in early succession habitats, the habitats with plentiful grass and bushes. Specifically they love the habitats that have sparse tall trees or snags (dead standing trees), and are within 200 feet of a mature forest. All three layers, a grass layer, shrub layer, and tall tree layer. This pickiness lead to their current decline, but actually lead to their earlier population increase!
Over the last 100 or so years, the United States went through a huge population increase. This lead to an increase in foresting and coal mining. The destruction of the old-growth forest actually increased the amount of suitable habitat for the Golden-winged Warbler. With the introduction of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 and the beginning of the global conservation movement many of these activities were retarded or halted. Areas that were once destroyed were allowed to grow back, reforestation began. With the reforestation, and return to mature forests, the Golden-winged's numbers began to decline again.
____________________________
The Golden-winged Warblers suffer from another problem, hybridization with Blue-winged Warblers.
The close cousin, the Blue-winged Warbler.While morphologically (meaning: visually) different from a Golden-winged Warbler, phenotypically (meaning: genetically), its habits, preferences, and song are quite similar. These two are so genetically similar that they can make fully functional offspring capable of mating. Hybridization is a common and fundamentally important aspect of evolution. The mixing of genes and loss of that distinct species in the next generation is very difficult to deal with by an already struggling species.
The interesting thing about these two species, is their two common hybrid outcomes.
As a reference
Golden-Winged Warbler on the left/Blue-winged Warbler on the right
The 'Brewsters Warbler' is simply a cross between a Golden-wing and a Blue-wing:
You can see the blue back and crown from the Golden-wing, as well as the black eyeline and yellow bib from the Blue-wing
The 'Lawrence Warbler' is thought to be a cross between two 'Brewster Warblers'
The Lawrence Warbler is a bit all over the place. A mask and bib like a Golden-wing, with wing wingbars and body color of a Blue-wing
While absolutely fascinating, when we come upon one in the field, we generally call it dirty names. It is visually proof of the Golden-wings decline. If we find a 'pure' individual mating with a hybrid we questions its upbringing and it's questionable morals. We essentially become bird racists.
Hybrids and how they relate to evolution and struggling species, is a complicated and fascinating subject I plan on touching this winter. It is much too long for today.
_________________________________________
My work revolved around searching for Golden-winged nests, monitoring and banding those nests, and gathering vegetation data on the nesting and territory sites.
How do you find a birds nest? Well the short answer is you follow it till it takes you to it. This is very simplified and varies in difficulty based on the species. The Golden-wing is a ground nester, and a paranoid one at that. Ground-nesters are very good at hiding their nest. If you live at the level of predators, you better be good at hiding it. The difficulty in finding one is medium to hard. At the end of a season you will find a couple, and you will miss ALOT.
Nest searching is like being a police detective in a foreign country.
Your equipment:
Notebook-rite-in-rain (water resistant)
Binoculars- definitely waterproof
And thats it
As you run through territories, you witness tiny snippets of the birds life. They (especially paranoid species like Golden-wings) don't trust you and don't like when you're around their nest. Running back and forth through their territory you see them fly different directions, double back, eat, grab nesting material, sing. And you have to figure out what, if anything, all this means.
Now grabbing nesting material means your lucky day, because you have a high chance they'll fly right to the nest. Otherwise, it's follow them as long as you can, write down what they do. Day by day, in each territory, you create a profile of them. Is there an area he/she likes to hang out in? Maybe the nest is there. Did the male just look down to the ground? Maybe its there.
Unless you get lucky, your day is finding evidence and investigating these hunches. You're usually wrong. Dead wrong. The nest could be 100 meters on the otherside of the forest and you spent three hours staking out a worthless patch of forest.
Nest searching is a funny thing. In the bird world I would say it's one of the hardest skills. Most bird jobs can teach you what you need to know, and except serious point counts, you only need to know how to identify a few species. Nest searching is something sought after and very frustrating. The frustration is common knowledge in nest searching, something that is talked about in interviews and over many beers. There will be days where you won't see your target species at all. You could go a couple weeks without finding a nest, while your partners find 10.
If it looks like we're having a moment, we're not. We both hate each other
________________________________
Our field site (mines farther down the mountain)
The humidity in the regions often brings fog in the morning, that settles softly in the valleys
Elevational change allows a variety of species to live in their preferred temperature bands. Elevation and geological activity create a variety of soil compositions and high diversity of plant species. Abundant rain fall brings in many plant and animals species that might otherwise be limited. All these factors turn the area into what is called a 'Biological hot spot'.
Eastern Tennesse is home to numerous frogs, amphibians and snakes. Including:
The Eastern Garter snake
The Black Racer
The declining Timber Rattlesnake
It's home to hundreds of bird species. About 20 warbler species breed in either mountain range in Tennessee. In migration the mountains act as a highway leading straight to the northern U.S and Canada. This summer I
The loud and charismatic Hooded Warbler
____________________________________
Another oddity in the Cumberlands are the Elk. Elk roamed Tennessee over 150 years ago. Western expansion saw the species disappear from most of the East. In 2000, Tennessee Wildlife and Resources Agency (TWRA) introduced 200 elk to the Cumberlands and began managing for them. This leads to a strange love affair, where the elk get special treatment over many other species. Forests are cleared, burned, and mowed to create 'food plots', for the elk to graze at. This inane tactic mainly acts as an easy meeting point for the elk. Seeing the elk is a tourist attraction, and starting in 2009, a hunting sport. Though only 300 strong, there have been exclusive elk hunts started, with a very guest list.
An interesting note, the Elk in the Cumberlands are anecdotally smaller than their western counterparts. This may be a function of the individuals they brought in from Canada or fast evolutionary selection for smaller individuals in the smaller range size of the Cumberland mountains.
The elk are a great addition to the environment. These previous residents are abundant on our study sites. You see them driving up the mountain, and run into them in the early morning on the mountain. Compared to the incredibly common White-tailed Deer, they are a welcome change. The problem rests in how TWRA deals with them. On Ashlog (the mountain my site was on) there is only fire management. This means sections of the mountain are burned to maintain pre-european settlement like ecological conditions. No food plots are currently planned for the mountain. On Massengale (the mountain opposite), food plots are maintained and burned. The elk are slightly more populous on the opposite mountain, but still locally abundant on either mountain. The more natural habitat on Ashlog still gives the Elk plenty of open fields to eat, and plenty of forests for other birds. Less hands touch Ashlog, while Massengale requires large roads to be built, mowers to mow over bird nests, and forests to be cleared.
I believe in a very hands off approach to conservation, and can not agree with the tactics of TWRA here. (Conservation practices represent another indepth topic I plan on covering this winter).
_____________________________________
Tennessee treated me very well. The majority of people are some of the nicest you'll ever meet. Watch out how interested you come off to a Tennessean, because they'll sit and talk with you for hours. They feed you. Help you. And always up for a chat. On multiple occasions I was either invited to dinner or given food made especially for us. They take pride in being called the Volunteer state, and love anything to do with the University of Tennessee. While they may not understand what you do, they'll feign interest just because you're with UT.
A sign upon entering Caryville, Tn (Taken by Laurel Moulton)
Live music thrives in Knoxville, especially blue grass bands.
Knoxville hosts many great events and a great square. It's a city that's just the right size, and attitude just right. I'm probably biased because I'm from the south. Many arguments against it arise from it being in a southern state with a politically radical right stance. I'm used to most of this though, so it didn't bother me.
_______________________________________
Cove Lake, was a little different. Situated right off the highway and in the middle of the Caryville, it acts like a giant city park for the residents. The state park has the towns basketball courts, tennis courts, gazebos, baseball diamonds, and the swimming pool. Every weekend brings in a multitude of people camping all around you. And the swimming pool is always full on weekends.
Wild, it is not.
And I got to stay in a very interesting travel trailer (taken by Laurel Moulton)
All in all it wasn't a terrible place to stay. Loud at times. And not very peaceful, but I can't complain too much.
__________________________
For a more indepth journey, head on over to my Photo Page and click on the Tennessee album. Once there you can experience my photog version.
Thanks for reading,
-Matt
The Lawrence Warbler is a bit all over the place. A mask and bib like a Golden-wing, with wing wingbars and body color of a Blue-wingWhile absolutely fascinating, when we come upon one in the field, we generally call it dirty names. It is visually proof of the Golden-wings decline. If we find a 'pure' individual mating with a hybrid we questions its upbringing and it's questionable morals. We essentially become bird racists.
Hybrids and how they relate to evolution and struggling species, is a complicated and fascinating subject I plan on touching this winter. It is much too long for today.
_________________________________________
My work revolved around searching for Golden-winged nests, monitoring and banding those nests, and gathering vegetation data on the nesting and territory sites.
How do you find a birds nest? Well the short answer is you follow it till it takes you to it. This is very simplified and varies in difficulty based on the species. The Golden-wing is a ground nester, and a paranoid one at that. Ground-nesters are very good at hiding their nest. If you live at the level of predators, you better be good at hiding it. The difficulty in finding one is medium to hard. At the end of a season you will find a couple, and you will miss ALOT.
Nest searching is like being a police detective in a foreign country.
Your equipment:
Notebook-rite-in-rain (water resistant)
Binoculars- definitely waterproof
And thats itAs you run through territories, you witness tiny snippets of the birds life. They (especially paranoid species like Golden-wings) don't trust you and don't like when you're around their nest. Running back and forth through their territory you see them fly different directions, double back, eat, grab nesting material, sing. And you have to figure out what, if anything, all this means.
Now grabbing nesting material means your lucky day, because you have a high chance they'll fly right to the nest. Otherwise, it's follow them as long as you can, write down what they do. Day by day, in each territory, you create a profile of them. Is there an area he/she likes to hang out in? Maybe the nest is there. Did the male just look down to the ground? Maybe its there.Unless you get lucky, your day is finding evidence and investigating these hunches. You're usually wrong. Dead wrong. The nest could be 100 meters on the otherside of the forest and you spent three hours staking out a worthless patch of forest.
Nest searching is a funny thing. In the bird world I would say it's one of the hardest skills. Most bird jobs can teach you what you need to know, and except serious point counts, you only need to know how to identify a few species. Nest searching is something sought after and very frustrating. The frustration is common knowledge in nest searching, something that is talked about in interviews and over many beers. There will be days where you won't see your target species at all. You could go a couple weeks without finding a nest, while your partners find 10.
I think the key is never giving up and not blaming yourself. A lot like in sports, once you find one, you magically find more. Confidence. Luck. Whatever it is. Increased time equals increased opportunities to get lucky. Lady luck doesn't care who you are, she's going to show herself if she damn well pleases and doesn't care about your 'feelings'.
If it looks like we're having a moment, we're not. We both hate each otherYou also find yourself part ninja. If a female sees you around her nest, she won't come to it. But you never know where the nest is. This leads to much stalking. You become a bird creeper. When you find a female, you follow as close as you can without scaring her. You hide behind trees, peak out from bushes, and run as fast as you can when she flys off. If you're on a stake out, you have to hide in the bushes. I have even gone as far as making a hat made of leaves, and covering myself in branches. Silly? Yes. Useful? Sometimes. Other times the bird just stares right at you and turns it's head inquisitively.
Tennessee is gorgeous. Eastern Tennessee in particular has amazing mountain views. The Appalachian mountains split the border between Tennessee and North Carolina, and the Cumberland mountains diverge just above Knoxville.
Our field site (mines farther down the mountain)
The humidity in the regions often brings fog in the morning, that settles softly in the valleysEastern Tennesse is home to numerous frogs, amphibians and snakes. Including:
The Eastern Garter snake
The Black Racer
The declining Timber Rattlesnake
It's home to hundreds of bird species. About 20 warbler species breed in either mountain range in Tennessee. In migration the mountains act as a highway leading straight to the northern U.S and Canada. This summer I 
The loud and charismatic Hooded WarblerA morning in the equivalent of the song bird suburbs is a cacophony of sound. Between Indigo Buntings, Yellow-breasted Chats, and every Warbler it can be hard to think in the forest. Only rain brings quiet, and then you're huddling under a tree to get out of the rain.
Another oddity in the Cumberlands are the Elk. Elk roamed Tennessee over 150 years ago. Western expansion saw the species disappear from most of the East. In 2000, Tennessee Wildlife and Resources Agency (TWRA) introduced 200 elk to the Cumberlands and began managing for them. This leads to a strange love affair, where the elk get special treatment over many other species. Forests are cleared, burned, and mowed to create 'food plots', for the elk to graze at. This inane tactic mainly acts as an easy meeting point for the elk. Seeing the elk is a tourist attraction, and starting in 2009, a hunting sport. Though only 300 strong, there have been exclusive elk hunts started, with a very guest list.An interesting note, the Elk in the Cumberlands are anecdotally smaller than their western counterparts. This may be a function of the individuals they brought in from Canada or fast evolutionary selection for smaller individuals in the smaller range size of the Cumberland mountains.
The elk are a great addition to the environment. These previous residents are abundant on our study sites. You see them driving up the mountain, and run into them in the early morning on the mountain. Compared to the incredibly common White-tailed Deer, they are a welcome change. The problem rests in how TWRA deals with them. On Ashlog (the mountain my site was on) there is only fire management. This means sections of the mountain are burned to maintain pre-european settlement like ecological conditions. No food plots are currently planned for the mountain. On Massengale (the mountain opposite), food plots are maintained and burned. The elk are slightly more populous on the opposite mountain, but still locally abundant on either mountain. The more natural habitat on Ashlog still gives the Elk plenty of open fields to eat, and plenty of forests for other birds. Less hands touch Ashlog, while Massengale requires large roads to be built, mowers to mow over bird nests, and forests to be cleared.
I believe in a very hands off approach to conservation, and can not agree with the tactics of TWRA here. (Conservation practices represent another indepth topic I plan on covering this winter).
_____________________________________
Tennessee treated me very well. The majority of people are some of the nicest you'll ever meet. Watch out how interested you come off to a Tennessean, because they'll sit and talk with you for hours. They feed you. Help you. And always up for a chat. On multiple occasions I was either invited to dinner or given food made especially for us. They take pride in being called the Volunteer state, and love anything to do with the University of Tennessee. While they may not understand what you do, they'll feign interest just because you're with UT.
-A quick side note on the Tennessee Volunteers-
Tennessee is called the volunteer state because their mass enrollment of soldiers in not only the War of 1812 but the Mexican-American War. Davy Crockett, while speaking to his disenchantment of the Tennessean political system, famously said, 'You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas'. While not initially planning on joining the Texas revolution, abruptly signed an oath of allegiance upon entering Texas, and joined the revolution. This altruism, regardless of the issue, runs deep in Tennessee's veins to this day.
-------
A bad side is the stranglehold meth has on Tennessee, especially the mountain regions. There's such a strong anti-meth campaign that children are taught the dangers as young as elementary school.
A sign upon entering Caryville, Tn (Taken by Laurel Moulton)Knoxville, the location of the University of Tennessee, is a wonderful town. It's blend of urban college students, growing green attitude, and Tennessee values creates an adorable town in the valley.
Live music thrives in Knoxville, especially blue grass bands._______________________________________
Cove Lake, was a little different. Situated right off the highway and in the middle of the Caryville, it acts like a giant city park for the residents. The state park has the towns basketball courts, tennis courts, gazebos, baseball diamonds, and the swimming pool. Every weekend brings in a multitude of people camping all around you. And the swimming pool is always full on weekends.
Wild, it is not.
It's surrounded by a small lake that gives great views of the Cumberland mountains (click to really enjoy)
Contains hundreds of non-migrating geese that rule the park.
Contains hundreds of non-migrating geese that rule the park.
And I got to stay in a very interesting travel trailer (taken by Laurel Moulton)All in all it wasn't a terrible place to stay. Loud at times. And not very peaceful, but I can't complain too much.
This all pretty much sums up my time at Tennessee. While there's so much more I could talk about. My sliders eating challenge. Ticks. First Friday. The Green Machine. I don't want this to go any longer than it currently is.
For a more indepth journey, head on over to my Photo Page and click on the Tennessee album. Once there you can experience my photog version.
Thanks for reading,
-Matt
