Feb 2009 Wingspan Wingspan Newsletter St. Petersburg Audubon Society

8/9/2019 Feb 2009 Wingspan Wingspan Newsletter St. Petersburg Audubon Society

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Calendar of Events -February + 09

Feb 7 - Target Birding - Limpkins - RooseveltWetlands - Meet 8 a.m. at wetlands, 43 rd St. and 110 th Ave.

N., Pinellas Park. Diverse wetland area. Over 100 specieshave been recorded in this small area. Leader: TBA. Contact: Judi Hopkins at 526-3725 (see newsletter)

Feb. 7 - Shorebird Classes Begin - see newsletter

Feb. 14-15-16 - Great Backyard Bird Count. Seenewsletter for details or contact Maureen Arnold, 577-0448.

Feb. 15-16-17 - Merritt Island NWR, Titusville, FL. - Birdthe refuge, Blue Heron Wetlands, and local hot spots. Stayat Best Western Space Shuttle Inn. Space is limited. CallMauri Peterson for reservations and costs, 398-4124.

Feb 21 - Target Bird Burrowing OwlsSee Burrowing Owls program in newsletter for details.

Feb 28 - Birding Trip - STA5 area in Clewiston (S/16/47)Constructed to filter agricultural runoff from water destinedfor the Everglades. Expect to see ducks, shorebirds, andwaders. Restricted to guided driving tours. Meeting spot willbe Clewiston Inn parking lot, 108 W. Royal Palm Ave.,7:30 a.m . From St. Pete. it is a 2-1/2 hour trip. We will

enter as a group to STA5 area. Leader: Lee Snyder.Contact: Judi Hopkins, 526-3725.

Mar 14 - Florida Specialties Bus Trip - Back by popular

demand! Join Dave Goodwin and Mauri Peterson for adaylong bus trip. See newsletter article for moreinformationwill include lunch at Forever Florida. Call Mauriat 727-398-4124 for cost and reservations.

Mar. 14-15 - Boyd Hill Wildlife Weekend - 1101 CountryClub Way S., St. Pete. Visit www.stpete.org/boyd for moreinformation. Call Wanda Dean to volunteer, 321-3995.

Mar. 17 - CREATING A BACKYARD HABITAT.. MarchProgram-- See March newsletter for details

The St. Petersburg Audubon Society

WingSpan February 2009

Wildlife photographer DanTudor depicts the fascinatingbehavior of burrowing owls andtheir plight with his inspiringimages of burrowing owls. Hisphotos and story have beenpublished in Times of theIsland magazine, Cape CoraBreeze newspaper, and the FMyers News Press.

Join us on February 21!

Carpool to attend theSouthwest Florida 7 th Annual

Burrowing Owl Festival , RotaryPark Environmental Center,5505 Rose Garden Road (ElDorado Pkwy & Pelican Blvd inSW Cape Coral).Bring a bag lunch, water, hat,sunscreen, binoculars, and dress forthe weather. If enough interest, this can become anovernighter. Hotel arrangements can be made for Sat., Feb.21.Leader: Dave Kandz. Visit http://stpeteaudubon.org for latest info and www.ccfriendsofwildlife.org for moinformation on the Burrowing Owl Festival.

BURROWING OWLS -- THE WISE AND THE WHIMSICAL

Guest Speaker, Dan TudorPhotographer and Member of

Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife

Tuesday, February 17, 20097:00 p.m.

Science Center, 7701 - 22 nd Ave. N.St. Petersburg

Celebrating 100 Years of Conservation 1909 - 2009


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Pinellas Birds by Ron SmithGreat participation by over 60+ observers spelled success for the St. Pete Christmas Bird Count when a record 163species were recorded! There was a host of great birds seen. Check out the National Audubon Society's CBC webpage and take a look at compiler Dave Goodwin's final tally at http://www.audubon.org/Bird/cbc.January 1st brought over 30 birders to Fort DeSoto County Park for the 18th annual Rich Paul New Year's Day BirdingOpen. The winning team of Lee Snyder and Judi Hopkins reported 87 species on a very windy day. The teamscombined for a total of 108 species, but better than that they raised another $600 towards the Florida Coastal IslandsSanctuaries to improve the 18-year total to over $11,000.

RECENT SIGHTINGS: Scott Patterson photographed a dark-morph Short-tailed Hawk at Sawgrass Lake CP onJanuary 1st. This was the first documented winter record of the species for Pinellas County! An immature Broad-wingedHawk has been seen throughout the winter season near the campground entrance to Fort DeSoto County Park. Whenheading through the park it is important to check all the light poles as you pass them. The hawk is often seen perchedon one.The Tierra Verde duck ponds held over 1150 ducks in early January. There were approximately 325 male Redheadson January 10th. A few Ruddy Ducks have been wintering in the south pond this year as has a female Canvasback.Off of East Beach at Fort DeSoto a large flock of over 150 Red-breasted Mergansers have gathered this winter. If youlook closely you should find one or two males, always a treat to see.

Sparrows have been a bit more conspicuous this winter in Pinellas. Several observers have found GrasshopperSparrows from Honeymoon Island all the way south to Fort DeSoto, where one found on January10th representedthe parks' first "winter" report. Judy Fisher photographed a handsome Field Sparrow near Seminole and a White-throated Sparrow put in a showing at the Brooker Creek Preserve on the 2nd of January. A Pinellas rarity was aSeaside Sparrow photographed at Honeymoon Island in late December by Bill Pranty.If you'd like to keep up with what's being seen around the county on a daily basis go to www.PinellasBirds.com . Goodbirding!

Shorebird Classes 2009 We will help you learn how to identify the major wintering shorebirds found onour Pinellas beaches. Three classes, Feb. 7 th , March 7 th & March 15 th from 8:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. (total of$30.00) will be held at Ft. DeSoto Park. Those cryptic species will be our focus with close up viewing throughseveral scopes. John Ogden, I, and other knowledgeable birders will guide you through the process. BringField Guide and Binoculars-- Prepare to get your feet wet Contact Maureen Arnold,(727) 577-0448; or [email protected].

P RESIDENT S MESSAGE by Mauri Peterson

Happy New Year to All! I hope your holidays were merry and 2009 brings you good birding.SPAS ended 2008 with a very successful Christmas Bird Count and started 2009 with avery successful Birding Open. See separate articles for details.

We continue to plan for our Centennial Banquet to be held April 18 thso save that date. Invitations will be mailedout in February; please respond asap to reserve your seat. Charles Lee, Director of Advocacy for Audubon of Florida,will be our keynote speaker. He has a wonderful program on the history of Audubon. We hope to have as our guest,Katherine Bell Tippetts, as portrayed by a character actor. The banquet will be held at the Tampa Bay Watch facilityon Tierra Verde. In addition to the banquet, Wanda Dean, Alice Tenney, Dave Kandz, and Lee Snyder have beenworking with the St. Petersburg History Museum to design a display on St. Pete Audubon and the Audubonorganization. If you have any memorabilia pertaining to either, they would love to hear from you. Old photos,newspaper clippings, pictures, etc., would be much appreciated. The opening of this display will also be in April.

One other event in late April will be the Spring FOS meeting. So needless to say, April will be a very busy month.Once were through that, I can concentrate on planning my wedding. Mark proposed to me on Christmas day! Weare planning a small ceremony in June.


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CONSERVATION NEWSby Dave Kandz

Florida Legislature Cuts Forever FundingOn January 8th, the State legislature announced that they would withdraw funding for land purchase and management in Floridaimmediately. The final legislative vote was Wednesday, January 14 . The legislation should now be with Governor Crist for hissignature.

Raiding the Florida Forever program sacrifices Florida'slong-term future.

Florida Forever bonding makes good fiscal sense: Becauseland is a permanent asset that benefits all Floridians, andbecause the costs should be shared with future Floridians, thisis one of the programs most deserving of borrowing.

Florida Forever's small appropriation has great impact: $10million or less in 2009-2010, combined with future recurringrevenue when the State's economy has improved, enables theState to borrow $300 million to spend on precious landresources today.

The time is now: A rare benefit to the current economicdownturn is that many priority Florida Forever parcels aravailable for purchase now -- and perhaps only now -- andpossibly at a reduced cost.

Please e-mail or fax Governor Crist to make the following requests. Make sure to copy the house and senate leadership andyour local legislators on your correspondence. Numbers are critical to influence current and future decision-making.

1. Commit to appropriation of adequate funding for Florida Forever , consistent with legislative intent reflectedin passage of its extension during the 2008 session.

2. Provide funds for Florida Forever land purchases that have been negotiated in good faith with land owners,and are ready to be executed . Delay will result in higher costs to taxpayers--land that now can be acquired ata reasonable cost will soon be much more costly or unavailable.

3. Funding for land management must be continued for all state conservation lands, including any state landsproposed for temporary closure as a cost cutting measure, such as the 19 properties in the Florida State Parksystem. Interruption of management practices including control of non-native nuisance species and prescribedburning -- means increased future management costs for minimal current savings. Neglect of such lands can alsoresult in uncontrolled fire events, and open properties to vandalism and citizen injury.

When one tugs at a simple thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.

John Muir

Contact information for Legislators can be found at http://www.flsenate.gov/Welcome/ Towards the bottom of the left sidemenu, go to Find your Legislators and type in your zip code. Governor Crists contact information is athttp://www.flgov.com/contact _governor. Visit SupportFloridaForever.org for up-to-date information on these issues .

St Petersburg Audubons 2008 Conservationist of the Year AwardPresented to Kathryn Bursch, 10 Connects (WTSP), for

Perseverance, Creativity, and the Positive Attitude Her Reporting Creates in Our Community of Conservation

Kathryn Bursch joined 10 Connects in 1999 as a general reporter. As part of her responsibilities,Kathryn has great freedom to report on issues which she feels are important. Some of the storiesshe has chosen to research in depth include:

The debate over Shell Keys new management plan Controversy over Brooker Creek Presence of rare birds, including Burrowing Owls in our county Least Terns nesting on rooftops Conflicts between utility power line corridors and Bald Eagles Research into the decline of the Red Knot nestingperhaps dearest to our hearts shorebirds

For a complete report, please go to our website at www.stpeteaudubon.org


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Birds at the End of Nature, By John C. Ogden, Director Florida Institute of Oceanography

As reported by Birdlife International (www.birdlife.org), the decline of the populations of the 9,856 living bird speciescontinues at an accelerating pace. This is in spite of the 2002 commitment of all the worlds governments through theConvention on Biological Diversity to slowing its loss by 2010.

In St. Petersburg we have had a ring-side seat as we are located on a key migratory flyway in one of the richest birdingregions in the southeast--abundantly endowed with a variety of bird habitats. Each spring and fall we confirm with our own eyesthe decline of neo-tropical migrants. Every few years brings a decline in long-distance migratory champions such as Red Knotsand vulnerable local beach nesters such as terns, plovers, and oystercatchers.

The Birdlife International report attributes the causes of bird loss to a bewildering long list of human disturbancesincluding industrial-scale agriculture, logging, and fishing; mining and energy production; housing development; invasive species;

and pollution. Additionally, the report predicts that climate change will cause major changes in the distribution and abundance ofbird populations. Put more simply, the relentless growth of human populations, changing demographics, and the increasingdemand for resources are altering forever the natural systems of our planet.

The familiar Florida statistics are worth repeating. In 1900 our population was just over 500,000 people. By 2000our population increased to just under 16 milliona 30-fold increase. Between 2004 and 2010, Florida's population is expectedto increase from 17.5 million to 20 million, or more than 1,000 people per day. Add to this the disproportionate per capita use ofworld resources by our industrialized nation and the conclusion is inevitable that we have created a crisis in our relationship withnature.

What can we do? Those of us of a certain age almost dare not think back to birds as we knew them 50 years ago. Wewill not recover the natural world of our youth. Here in this most populous of counties in a rapidly growing state, we must workharder to protect as much undeveloped bird habitat as possible while there is t ime. Two recent examples come immediately tomind: the purchase of the huge 871-acre Eldridge-Wilde well field and the tiny Bird Island in Coffee Pot Bayou. In addition, wemust continue to work with local governments to increase bird protection on public land as we did with Shell Key. What of our

other less protected barrier islands? Outreach to our fellow citizens is the key as is the power of the ballot box. If we make acommitment to help in this effort, each in his own way, it could return great benefits.This is the Centennial year of SPAS. Part of our celebration should be a comparison of the habitat maps of Pinellas

County of 1908 with 2008 using dramatic visual methods. At the same time we should ask our experts to compare birdpopulations then and now keyed to the maps. This would impress the many citizens who do care about nature that we have losta tremendous amount and that there is little time left. Our milestone Centennial and re-commitment will go a long way tosuccess in the effort to protect bird habitat in Florida, in our nation, and in the world.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is led by the Cornell Lab

of Ornithology and National Audubon Society. Please help on thisannual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages incounting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds areacross the continent. Anyone can participate, from beginning birdwatchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes. It's free, fun,and easyand it helps the birds!

Why count birds? Scientists and bird enthusiasts can learna lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic;hey are constantly in flux. No single scientist or team of scientists

could hope to document the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time. Please visit the website tosign-up: http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/howto.html

NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY

MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONINTRODUCTORY MEMBERSHIP $20.00 (New membership only)

Please enroll me as a member in the National AudubonSociety. Start my subscription to A UDUBON magazine & sendmy membership card. I do not wish to receive A UDUBON magazine. I wish to receive the SPAS WingSpan only electronically.

Name _______________________________________

Address ______________________________________

City ___________________ State___ Zip___________

Phone __________________________

E-mail address __________________________________

Please enclose a check, payable to the National AudubonSociety , mail to:

St. Petersburg Audubon SocietyPost Office Box 49087

St. Petersburg, FL 33743-9087 National Audubon occasionally makes its membership listavailable to carefully selected organizations whose mailings you mayfind interesting. To have your name omitted from this list, pleasecheck here.

I would also like to help my local chapter. I have a specialinterest and/or skills in:

Local conservation issues Board of Directors


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Shell Key Shuttle & Sunset Cruises

Shell Out$22/adult

$11/child


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SUPPORT THE AUDUBON ADVENTURES PROGRAM Please help St. Petersburg Audubon continue to provide this invaluable

science curriculum to the students of south Pinellas County.

What is the goal of AUDUBON ADVENTURES?

Audubon envisions a future with a community of enlightened and informed citizens aware of the environmentaloutcomes of each of their activities. It is a community with the knowledge, skills, and resources to make informedchoices between alternative courses of action that result in minimizing the negative effects on our environment.

Audubon Adventures introduce young people, their families, and their teachers, to the fundamental principles bywhich the natural world functions. Our publications for students and teachers give readers compelling examples andactivities that show those principles at work.

When we achieve our goals, our readers have the foundation necessary for recognizing our individual and collectiveresponsibility for the health of our environment. And out of that recognition comes understanding that personalactions can have meaningful, positive, and far-reaching effects.

What is AUDUBON ADVENTURES?

AUDUBON ADVENTURES is an environmental education program for children ingrades 3 to 5. Developed by professional environmental educators, AUDUBONADVENTURES presents basic, scientifically accurate facts about birds, wildlife, andtheir habitats. It comes to you packaged as a Classroom Kit (serving 32 students) orIndividual Kit (serving 1 student). The program is used by classroom teachers, after-school program coordinators, special education instructors, language arts teachers, andhome schoolers.

Since its inception in 1984, over 7 million youngsters have participated in the program .

HERE'S WHAT CLASSES RECEIVE

Audubon Adventures Nature News Tabloid,4 editions, 32 copies of each edition

One classroom resource manual

Endangered habitat poster

Guide for a healthy schoolyard

Official certificate of participation

FREE BONUS

One year subscription to Audubon magazineAffiliation with local Audubon chaptersLocal field trip opportunitiesFree access to Audubon's bird and wildlife

information helpline

AUDUBON ADVENTURES

ADOPT-A-CLASS DONOR FORMName _______________________________

Address _____________________________

____________________________________

City ________________________________

State ____________ Zip _______________

I want to be part of the Adopt-A-Class Project.I will sponsor _____ class(es) at $46/class.

I am unable to sponsor a class, but still want tohelp. Enclosed is my check for $ __________

I want my sponsorship to go to this school:

_____________________________________

_____________________________________

Please make checks payable toSt. Petersburg Audubon and send to:

PO Box 1347St. Petersburg, FL 33731-1347

Please help St. Petersburg Audubon continue to provide this invaluablescience curriculum to the elementary school students of south PinellasCounty.

Send your donation today using the form on this page. It will helpensure that our students learn about the natural world and how to be betterstewards of it.

Documents

Feb 2009 Wingspan Wingspan Newsletter St. Petersburg Audubon Society