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Bird Count Results Rolling In

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 14, 2009

TAMPA - You won't have much trouble spotting crows, swallows and double-crested cormorants around the area, but you'll have to look carefully for a summer tanager and a peregrine falcon.

Results are being compiled for the National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count, conducted from Dec. 14 to Jan. 5. Teams went out in "count circles," which span a 15-mile diameter, across the country to record all the birds they could in a day.

A dozen count circles operate in the Tampa Bay area, and the data for half of them has been updated for 2008-09. To see the results from the Aripeka-Bayport, Brooksville, east and west Pasco, Lake Wales and North Pinellas circles, click here.

Volunteers encountered thousands of birds. West Pasco's 59 volunteers went out Jan. 2 and logged 175 species. They found high numbers of bald eagles (30), roseate spoonbills (25) and great blue herons (175). They also marked six white-winged scoters as new this year.

People in East Pasco noted 400 sandhill cranes, a high number for that area. The Lake Wales count circle found two whooping cranes and seven Canada geese, also unusual. Volunteers in North Pinellas spotted one summer tanager and one peregrine falcon.

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