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Volunteers Flock To Bird Count

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

Carolyn McKinney, president of Tampa Audubon Society, and Mike Hall count birds along the Upper Tampa Bay Trail.

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR

cpastor@tampatrib.com

Published: January 14, 2009

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Volunteers took to the Upper Tampa Bay Trail on Jan. 3 to participate in a national effort to find and track birds.

The group was part of the annual Christmas Bird Count, which ran from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5 this year. The National Audubon Society divides the country into "count circles" 15 miles wide, and volunteers spend a day during the bird count time period logging every bird they see.

Results help spotlight trends, such as declining bird populations, and can spur efforts to preserve habitats, said Carolyn McKinney, president of the Tampa Audubon Society.

For the Tampa count, a group met at 8 a.m. at the trail entrance off West Waters Avenue to start. Others selected different spots in the Tampa circle, centered near Lowry Park Zoo. They convened at Sweet Tomatoes that night to share stories. The data will be filed with the Audubon Society, which posts results for all areas online.

Tampa has participated for 37 years and usually finds about 145 species of birds. Hillsborough County includes the Alafia Banks circle, in the southern part of the county, which went out in December and logged 151 species.

This is the 109th year the Audubon Society has held the count.

Keyword: Bird Count, for results from last year's Christmas Bird Count. This year's counts will be added as they become available.

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