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Letter to the editor

Tally for Audubon's Brooksville bird count is about average

By Dan DeWitt, Times Staff Writer
Published March 12, 2008

The horde of black vultures roosting on the bleached-out limbs of drowned oaks turned out to be a bit misleading.

Yes, the Hernando Audubon Society's most recent Brooksville Christmas Bird Count got off to a slow start at Bystre Lake, east of town, where the vultures had perched on the edge of the shallow, pea-soup-colored water, and the numbers of nearly all the other species were dishearteningly low.

But it was not, in the end, a disaster, according to the final results recently posted on the National Audubon Society's Web site. The tally of about 57,000 birds and 120 species was about average for recent years and well above the 2004 count, when the total bottomed out at 105 species.

But how would that compare if I looked back a little further, say 20 years? I wanted to know because last year, the National Audubon Society completed a comprehensive report on long-term trends in the nation's bird populations. What it said about birds and their habitat was not good.

Nearly every species that depends on natural areas - wetlands, forests and meadows - had declined, many of them dramatically. Meanwhile, crows, vultures and other birds that have adapted to the presence of humans had thrived.

If the birds themselves are not reason enough to worry about this trend, how about another reason: money?

A recent study by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission showed that wildlife viewing, with bird watching leading the way, contributed $3.1-billion to the state's economy in 2006, nearly double the sum from five years earlier. Several sites in Hernando County are featured on the Great Florida Birding Trail, the commission's list of prime viewing locations.

Hernando, at the end of 1987, shared a lot with the county today. It was at the end of a historic boom, with a population of nearly 90,000 that had doubled since 1980. It was hardly wilderness.

But, just by looking at a few numbers, it is clear that it was a different place, with a greater variety of species - 138 - and large flotillas of waterfowl on area lakes. The Christmas count 20 years ago yielded 557 ring-necked ducks, compared with 34 in 2007. During that same period, the tallies of ruddy ducks dropped from 52 to two.

Pasture-dwelling species are especially vulnerable to development, said Clay Black, coordinator of the Brooksville count, who posted the recent and historical numbers online.

Sure enough, the count of loggerhead shrikes dropped from 144 to 17, Eastern meadowlarks from 169 to 16 and Northern bobwhite quail from 32 to zero.

The reverse trend can be seen in Eurasian collared doves, an exotic species, the winged equivalent of an invasive weed. The Christmas count found none 20 years ago and 131 last December. The total of black vultures, likewise, grew from 194 to 400, and American crows from 94 to 280.

Real birders known enough not to despair about these numbers. The Christmas count is not a scientific survey but rather a snapshot heavily influenced by temporary factors such as the current drought.

Every year seems to turn up a few encouraging signs, including the 500 white pelicans counted this past December. Wild turkeys are more numerous than they have been for years. So are red-cockaded woodpeckers, thanks to better management of their population in the Withlacoochee State Forest.

I'll try to keep that in mind next year if I cover the Christmas count. I'll try not to think about the history of the county's bird population when I roll up to the south shore of Bystre and, hopefully, see more ducks and not quite so many vultures.

Dog has a home

I got some good news last week about Charlotte, the energetic mixed-breed dog that shared a kennel with me at a recent fundraiser for the Humane Society of the Nature Coast. She was adopted by a couple from Dade City, said executive director Joanne Schoch.

And the couple did it the right way, Schoch said, taking a day to think it over before taking Charlotte home.

"There has to be a conscious decision," she said. "We're thrilled."

So am I.

[Last modified March 11, 2008, 20:28:58]