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West Pasco Audubon Chapter Joins Christmas Bird Count

Tribune photo by ANDY JONES

Jim McGinity, left, Andrea and Terri Willingham and Ric Hoover join the annual bird count in Pasco today.

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By RONNIE BLAIR | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 2, 2009

NEW PORT RICHEY - Jim McGinity definitely is no novice when it comes to bird-watching.

He took up the hobby more than three decades ago when he was about 7-years-old and living in Indiana.

"I think I saw my first barred owl in the snow," McGinity said.

Lots of time has passed since then, but McGinity's interest in birding hasn't waned. He joined more than 50 other bird enthusiasts today for the annual Christmas Bird Count organized by the West Pasco Audubon Society.

They searched the woods, the shore and neighborhoods for wood ducks, cattle egrets, ospreys, least sandpipers, Eastern towhees and other species.

"I love to do this," said McGinity, 44, who is an environmental educator at Booker Creek Preserve in Pinellas County.

The bird count is more than a fun time in the woods, though.

The National Audubon Society says data collected during the annual Christmas counts can provide insight into the long-term health of bird populations and the environment.

People who turned out for the West Pasco count fanned out in a circle 15 miles in diameter and centered at the Magnolia Valley Golf Course clubhouse in New Port Richey.

McGinity led a small group into Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park, where volunteers spotted more than 40 species. The group included Ric Hoover of Tarpon Springs, Jon Burr of Palm Harbor, Andrea Willingham, a student at Eckerd College, and her mother, Terri Willingham.

Andrea Willingham, 18, a freshman majoring in environmental studies, said her bird-watching enthusiasm was hatched in the summer of 2007 when she won a scholarship to attend an Audubon Society ornithology camp on Hog Island, Maine.

"After that, I couldn't stop," she said.

Birders started the count before the sun rose. They met at midday at Starkey Wilderness Park's education center to eat lunch and compare notes. Ken Tracey, president of the West Pasco Audubon Society, asked for volunteers to return to some of the coastal areas to search for species that had not turned up.

It was an eclectic bunch of birders. Kenn and Virginia Pray of Ontario have participated in counts in Canada, but this was their first in Florida.

The Prays, who winter in Zephyrhills, said Canadian birders face conditions Floridians don't encounter.

"They had 3 feet of snow this year when they did the bird count," Kenn Pray said.

The Prays have been married 35 years. Virginia Pray took up birding 25 years ago and her husband joined her 20 years ago.

The Prays saw more than 30 species, including a red-tailed hawk and a black-and-white warbler, as they counted birds this morning in Sims Park, Frances Avenue Park and James E. Grey Preserve.

They were teamed with John Polo of New Port Richey, who took up birding about two years ago. Polo was participating in his first count and was happy to be paired with such experienced bird-watchers.

The Prays were impressed with Polo.

"John's a very good eye," Kenn Pray said.

Polo was equally impressed with Virginia Pray's expertise at identifying those hard-to-see-clearly small birds.

"I look at small birds, and they all look the same to me," he said.

This year marks the 109th Christmas Bird Count. The Pasco chapter began participating in the 1970s.

The first count took place when 27 birders, protesting an annual hunt, decided to count birds on Christmas Day rather than shoot them, according to the National Audubon Society Web site.

Although the event is called the Christmas Bird Count, it doesn't have to take place on Christmas Day. Each Audubon chapter can choose when to hold its count, as long as the date falls sometime from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5.

Reporter Ronnie Blair can be reached at (813) 948-4218 or rblair@tampatrib.com.

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