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Anderson Road Recreation Area

Birding Seasons:
Spring A
Summer C
Fall A
Winter A+

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Site Description and Habitats

The fitness trail provides many good views of the lake, travels through mixed hardwoods and cedar forest, and leads to a day use area that is closed to vehicles from fall through spring. The recreation area is only open to vehicles in summer and is often crowded, however the birding is best in the offseason which happens to be when it is closed to vehicles and few people use the area. We recommend parking at the trail head for the fitness trail and walking. The full loop takes 1 hour or more to walk and bird watch, so plan accordingly.

Bird species of interest

Spring and Fall Migration: Prairie Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Field Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Orchard Oriole, and Cedar Waxwing.

Summer: Local Mallards, Canada Geese, and occasionally a lingering immature/nonbreeding Common Loon

Winter: Common Loon, Ring-billed Gull, Bonaparte's Gull, many species of waterfowl are possible including American Black Duck, Northern Pintail, Bufflehead, Common Goldeneye, Red- breasted Merganser. Golden-crowned and Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, Hermit Thrush, and White-throated Sparrows can be regular.

Year-Round: Carolina Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, Northern Mockingbird.

Rarities Seen at this Site: Eared Grebe, Tundra Swan, a Yellow Warbler was found and seen by a group on the local Christmas Bird Count on 1 Jan 2014.

Species list via eBird Hotspot Explorer

Submit your data to eBird here

Detailed directions for birding Anderson Recreation Area
From Nashville, take I-40 East to Exit 219 - Stewarts Ferry Pike. Take a right on Stewarts Ferry Pike (which actually turns into Bell Rd) and travel approximately 4.7 miles on Bell Road to Smith Springs Road (stop light). Turn left on Smith Springs Road and travel 1.1 miles to a four way stop at Anderson Rd. Turn left on Anderson Rd and travel 1.4 miles to a day use area on your left with a parking lot. This parking lot is the first left after the entrance to the campground and is open year round during daylight hours. From I-24, take exit 59, Bell Rd, east 3.9 miles to the intersection with Smith Springs Rd. Turn right onto Smith Springs Rd and travel 1.1 miles to a four way stop at Anderson Rd. Turn left on Anderson Rd and travel 1.4 miles to a day use area on your left with a parking lot. This parking lot is the first left after the entrance to the campground and is open year round during daylight hours. This parking lot provides access to a "fitness trail" that is a paved loop that travels around the recreation area and returns to just north of the parking lot. Directly past the parking lot to the fitness trail the entrance to the recreation day use area that is closed in winter.

Lat-Long (GPS) coordinates
Parking lot at the fitness trail: 36.107976, -86.60188

Fees and Hours
Open day light hours, year round, but best fall through spring. In summer, the recreation area has a fee per car. Access to the public recreation area, boat ramp and restrooms is $4 during summer, while walking in year round is free.

Hazards
Parked cars have been broken into on occasion so don’t leave any valuables in sight inside car.

Facilities
Seasonal restrooms are available.

Info for other sites
Tennessee’s Watchable Wildlife web site