Northpinellas: Where the egret and alligator roam

The tall and elegant birds have been known to stare incessantly through the window at customers eating inside. Many diners oblige them with leftovers.

From open to close, at least one of the birds is always there, focused on the food, oblivious to the 60,000-plus cars a day that pass by on McMullen-Booth and Enterprise roads.

"They sort of take turns," restaurant manager Kris Porter says. "The customers love them. Some people come back just to see the birds. New customers always ask us about them. They are kind of a fixture here."

That's Pinellas County for you: It is the most densely populated county in Florida, yet wildlife manages to survive, even thrive, amid the suburban sprawl. Exotic birds out of an Audubon painting turn up in front yards. Ospreys nest in trees and atop power poles. Alligators and otters proliferate in ponds and canals. Peacocks roam freely, often loudly, in a neighborhood just south of Dunedin, to the joy of some and the consternation of others.

Some animals even embrace the human encroachment. Raccoons and opossums are more plentiful in the county than they have ever been, according to wildlife experts.

Many other animals are less apparent, but just as plentiful. Foxes live beneath mobile homes. Bobcats roam golf courses. Both animals are rarely seen because they usually come out only at night, but they can be found nearly anywhere in the county, wildlife experts say.

"It would be safe to say if someone put a live trap in their yard, they'd probably be totally astonished by what they'd catch," said animal trapper Vernon Yates of Seminole. "They would catch things they'd swear were not in their neighborhood."

Yates is the person the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission calls when it gets complaints from residents who feel threatened or annoyed by wild animals in their neighborhoods. Usually, that means alligators, but sometimes the calls specify rattlesnakes, otters or raccoons.

More and more, he has been responding to calls about wild animals that have adapted to suburban life and are coming back to the point that some consider them a nuisance.

"I have been in the county 43 years and I see things now I didn't see 10 years ago," he said.

Foxes, for example, "have made a major comeback in the last 10 years," Yates said. They like mobile home parks, where they can sleep beneath homes during the day and forage among garbage and dog and cat food dishes at night. They live largely undetected by their human neighbors. Those who do catch a late-night glimpse usually assume it is a dog.

Otters, too, appear to be proliferating, he said.

Joseph Quattrocki of Clearwater can attest to that. Although it has been a while, several times he has spotted a family of otters playing in the retention pond behind his home in the Morningside neighborhood.

"They really aren't interested in people," said Quattrocki, 57. "When they see you, that's it, they're gone."

Most sightings have come very early in the morning or late in the evening. They travel through drainage pipes from one pond to another.

"As long as no one bothers them, they'll be just fine," he said.

That's sound advice, said Yates. Feeding wild animals throws the whole ecosystem out of whack and inevitably leads to problems.

"I don't even like to see bird feeders," Yates said.

Feeding encourages encounters with humans, he said, which can be disastrous for the animals. Gators and raccoons that lose their fear of humans often are the ones Yates is called to trap.

"We've got more raccoons and possums now than ever before in our county's history," said Craig Huegel, Pinellas environmental lands division administrator. "There is probably not a place in the county where they couldn't find a meal."

Two 2-month-old raccoons apparently separated from their mother literally ended up at the doorstep of Oldsmar City Hall last week. A city employee knew just whom to call: Mayor Jerry Beverland. Beverland has adopted a number of raccoons over the years and has two nasty scars on his arm from raccoon bites to prove it.

Beverland nursed the raccoons at his home for a couple of days. They like cat food and marshmallows, he said. Then he took them to an animal refuge in Land O'Lakes.

Some birds, like egrets, also thrive in a suburban environment dotted with retention ponds that house fish, he said. Telephone and electrical poles are a favorite nesting site for ospreys.

To the delight of residents, ospreys have returned yearly to a pine tree in Chesapeake Mobile Home in Tarpon Springs. Three baby ospreys were born there again this year. But as is sometimes the case, when conflicts between humans and wild animals arise, the animals lose.

The pine tree has begun to lean and start to fall down. It now threatens to land on three mobile homes. Residents considered putting up a pole for the ospreys to build a new nest, said Nancy Lloyd Kaiser, a resident and manager of the mobile home park. But Florida Power says that would cost $5,000.

"We can't afford $5,000 for a bird's nest," Kaiser said. "It's going to cost a couple thousand just to take the tree down."

The plan now is to wait until the young ospreys have left the nest, then knock down the tree.

"We hate to lose the tree, but there's nothing we can do," Kaiser said.

Rodents actually do better in a suburban environment than a pristine wooded one, Huegel said. For one, they have no predators. And garbage provides a steady food source.

Those rodents attract other predators, like owls and bobcats.

All bobcats need is a safe place to hide out -- a vacant lot or wooded easement -- and a food source. The same is true for coyotes, Huegel said.

"There is probably not a part of the county that doesn't have a coyote somewhere," Huegel said. "From St. Petersburg to Tarpon Springs, on any given night, one might walk across the road in front of you."

"My advice to people is if they see (a wild animal), just be glad that you saw it," Yates said. "Just enjoy the moment."

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