Summer O'Regan was unfazed by the task confronting her: washing windows in a lodge at Camp Wai Lani, in the Palm Harbor area. Summer was one of about 50 girls, ages 8 - 14, who took sponges, cloths and paintbrushes in hand last Saturday to spruce up the venerable Girl Scout camp. Their work included painting, cleaning, burning brush piles and changing fire alarm batteries and light bulbs. ...more

January 24, 2009

About half of the Tampa Bay area's count circles have logged the species they spotted in the most recent Christmas Day bird count. ...more

January 14, 2009

Butterflies of creamy yellow and sky blue flit among cabbage palms, wax myrtles and oaks, past roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets and night herons feeding at the edge of an old shell-mining pit. ...more

October 18, 2008

Fourth of July traditions like fireworks and kite-flying can be scary for nesting birds, and Audubon of Florida is asking boaters and beachgoers to avoid celebrating near roped-off and marked areas on Tampa Bay islands and Pinellas County beaches. Many of the Bay's nesting birds, including brown pelicans, roseate spoonbills, herons, egrets and terns, have young chicks that are vulnerable to predators or the sun's heat. Frightening adult birds away from their offspring can spell death for the chicks at a time when some Tampa Bay species are flirting with extinction. ...more

July 1, 2008

This isn't one of those pet-friendly rivers they go tubing on in Ohio and Wisconsin. You don't float this river on your $4.95 Kmart raft with Sparky splashing alongside it. ...more

December 27, 2007

TAMPA - Adult brown pelicans are under increasing pressure from habitat loss, storm damage and predation. The No. 1 killer of these birds, though, is discarded fishing line. ...more

October 18, 2007