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Audubon Society Has Passion For Birds

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By RICK FOLSTAD, Tribune correspondent

Published: November 2, 2007

TAMPA - Ann Paul has a passion for birds.

As co-president of the Tampa Audubon Society, she leads bird watchers on field trips into the wild, searching for small birds, large birds and the occasional rare bird.

When she sees something flutter in the palmetto, she doesn't just tell you what kind of bird it is. She tells you what it eats, what it sounds like, where it lives, who it doesn't like and who its closest friends are.

Take the great egret. It's one of those tough, gawky, majestic birds that rallied back from the brink of extinction in the early 1900s when it was heavily hunted for its long white feathers, a fashionable accessory added to lady's head wear.

Now a protected bird that nests in colonies of up to 100, the great egret is the official symbol of the National Audubon Society. That's because public outrage over the egret's slaughter led to the founding of the Audubon Society in the United States.

Thanks, big bird.

The chance to see a great egret, maybe snap some photos, is just one of the reasons the group of 11 bird watchers are here in Lettuce Lake Park on a sunny Saturday morning in early October, quietly pointing and glassing and identifying birds.

Along with the larger shore birds, they're here to see yellow-throated warblers, catbirds, pileated woodpeckers, cardinals and gnatcatchers.

And that's just the start.

Go birding with the Audubon Society and you quickly learn about habits and habitat, history and nature. You walk quietly on trails through wetlands and pine forests, and you learn about spiders and squirrels and, most importantly, how to identify poison ivy before you stroll through it trying to get a closer look at a wren.

You learn that bird 'watching' is also about bird listening. Birds like to chat.

That's why it doesn't take long before Paul and the group stop. They're just a few yards from the Audubon Resource Center in the park when they hear a bird's version of a rap session.

'What we're doing is kind of listening to bird conversations,' Paul says quietly. 'You can hear all the talk going on up there in the canopy. The birds are already in their winter mode, trying to survive until next spring when they start mating again.'

Paul explains that it's a mixed-species flock, but all the birds are on the lookout for hawks.

'And the hawks are definitely here,' she says.

Maybe that's why the mixed flock seems to have suddenly vanished.

Hoping to bring it back into the canopy, Paul starts to make a noise best described as pishing.

'Pish, pish, pish,' she calls out. 'Pish, pish, pish.'

Nothing.

'So far, the pishing isn't working at all,' she says.

Hawks 1, mixed flock 0.

Moving away from the ARC, the group starts identifying more birds seen flashing through the trees. Paul is holding open her bird book to show the group what some of the birds look like up close in high-def color.

Dave Wharton, 76, is one of the birders. A member of the American Birding Association, he has been bird watching since 1943, which might explain why he quickly identified a bird call as a pileated woodpecker.

'It's a challenge to identify birds,' he says of birding. 'It also gets you outdoors, gets you some exercise and you get to meet some interesting people.'

Through sight and sound, the group identifies cardinals, flickers, yellow-throated warblers, tufted titmouse, catbirds, downy woodpeckers, turkey vultures, black vultures and gnatcatchers.

And a gabby Carolina wren, the male of which can sing something like 40 different songs.

'I've always been amazed that that little bird makes that big a sound,' Paul says.

Moving onto the boardwalk that leads to the Hillsborough River, the group starts identifying several shorebirds. By the time it reaches the observation tower overlooking the water, the birders have identified an anhinga, osprey, little blue herons, glossy ibis, tri-colored herons, great egrets and white ibis.

Autumn Mueller, 32, is another one of the birders. An academic advisor at USF, she also volunteers to staff the ARC on some weekends.

'The first thing about birding is the enjoyment of nature,' she says. 'But it's also nice to go out with a goal. Identifying birds adds a challenge, it becomes more mental. If a little kid comes up to you and asks, 'What's that bird?' you can tell him.'

While the birders are standing near the bottom of the tower, a mottled brown, long-legged wading limpkin suddenly takes flight close by.

'Oh, you beautiful baby,' Paul says as it slowly flies in front of the group.

The limpkin is special to Paul. Though its range stretches north to the Georgia border, she says Florida likes to claim it as its own.

'We're so lucky to be in Florida,' she says. 'We have so many birds. You never know what you're going to find on a field trip.'

Maybe a limpkin. Maybe an egret. Maybe a new hobby.

Maybe a passion for birds.

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