2005 Summary

There were 18 participants on 5 teams. A total of 132 bird species were counted and $969 were raised. The winning team, Punk, led by Lynn Bates, saw 114 species and raised $176.70. Second place went to team Whatever, led by Paul Holmes, with 92 species. Third place was taken by Jaybirds, led by Tom Zinneman, with 87 Species. Fourth place went to Mangrove Cuckoos, led by Stu Lewis, had 86 species. Fifth place went to Archaeoptryx, led by Cathy Olson, with 76 Species and was #1 in fundraising with $492 raised.

4th Annual Charlotte Harbor 100 Bird-A-Thon Enjoyed By All

This year's event coincided with the Florida Ornithological Society meeting, co-hosted by PRAS and the Venice Audubon Society, thus inspiring 'Speed Birders' from as far away as Brevard County to participate.

Eighteen birders comprising five teams took part in this year's event organized by PRAS Vice-president Paul Holmes.  This year there were a few significant changes to the rules including requiring all participants to start and stop in the same location and at the same times (6:00 am  and noon) and that all birding occur in Charlotte County.

Easily beating the existing record, of 100 species, the winning team with 114 different bird species was made up of two of the states best known Speed Birders, David Simpson and Andy Bankert, teamed with local expert Lynn Bates well known for her bird identification class at the Cultural Center .

Two other speed birding experts David Freeland from Merrit Island and Murry Gardler from Weekiwatchee, teamed with Paul Holmes, came in second having identified 92 different bird species.

Three teams made up of only local Charlotte County birders came in third, forth and fifth places.

In total, 131 species were seen by all and $800 were raised to support the PRAS Youth Environmental Education Fund and PRAS operating expenses. The top fundraisers were team Archaeoptryx with $492.

For a summary of results from all years click Here.

Tales of a SpeedBirder
By David Simpson

Let me tell you what Team Punk did last weekend. We participated in the first annual Charlotte Harbor 100, a Birdathon to raise money for Peace River Audubon Society. This year (the Bird-A-Thon) was set up in conjunction with the spring meeting of Florida Ornithological Society. Since Andy and I were both attending the meeting, we decided that we would challenge the home town champions. I have little time to devote to Big Days this year. The unique nature of this Big half Day was intriguing. The competition starts and ends at the same location and runs from 0600 to 1200. All species must be within Charlotte County. I was familiar with the hotspots of Charlotte County from many Big Days and one trip with Mr.Bouton himself. A six hour Birdathon in this county was too much to resist. So Andy and I gathered a few pledges and set ourselves to the challenge.

I had but one day to scout for this competition, since I wanted to check out the field trips during the meeting. I arrived near dawn Friday and began the campaign to topple the hometown hero's. I had 3-1/2 hours during the drive from Rockledge to contemplate the game plan. Babcock-Webb WMA would figure prominently in the competition. Given my familiarity with the site and the birds present, I decided to concentrate my limited scouting on areas with which I was less familiar. It was still dark when I arrived in the county, so I wandered out to Ponce DeLeon Park on the south side of the harbor. My intention was to find out when the gates open. Upon arriving at 0545, the gates were already open. I sat in the parking lot wondering if I should begin daylight here or continue on to the Aqui Esta Ponds. I decided it was best to check the ponds to see what remained of the winter flock of Hooded mergansers. The pond hosted an impressive number of Hooded mergansers, many of which stayed the morning. Also present in the pond were moorhens, a Pied-billed grebe, Ring-necked ducks, and three Lesser Scaup. Who knows which of these would be key on the CH 100? The other area of interest was the park located on the southeast corner of Aqui Esta and Bal Harbor. This park could hold some seemingly uninteresting but significant species for a Birdathon of limited geographic extent. There were House wrens, gnatcatchers, a grounddove, a pair of Cooper's hawks, and a singing Prairie warbler. The warbler could be significant. If we can get it here, we may be able to cut out Ponce DeLeon Park and recoup some time. I don't know the status of Cooper's hawk in the county, but this pair seems to be attached to the area. They were flying and calling to each other like a nesting pair.

My next target area was the Harborview and Deep Creek areas east ofI-75, north of the Peace River. En route, I checked a dock on the eastside of SR 41 and north side of the Peace River. There were many Royal terns, Laughing and Ring-billed gulls, but no Sandwich terns. Lesser scaup were present in numbers, but no Red-breasted mergansers or loons save one flyover Common loon. I did see a flock of turnstones on a distant dock. I wasn't sure yet where we would find our coastal species on Sunday, so turnstones might be significant. As I passed over I-75, I noticed a dirt road heading south of Harborview Blvd. I decided to check the area as an alternate for scrub jays. The habitat was pretty bad, but it is near the Deep Creek/Harborview population. If I could find an alternate spot, we could cut out the Deep Creek loop and save more time. As it turned out, I would not find any jays. I followed the road back until it ended (for 2WD vehicles) at a borrow pond. The pond held little of interest with the exception of some roosting Black-crowned night-herons. I continued the search for alternative scrub jays sites south of Harborview Blvd. across from Deep Creek Elementary with a similar degree of success. I did finally pickup an alternative scrub jay spot in route to Harborview Park. The park was still closed due to damage from the hurricanes, but I was able to see the nesting Yellow-crowned night-herons Andy and I found last summer. Nice to have one in your pocket. I continued through the Deep Creek area and found many scrub jays, shrikes, and a Brown thrasher. I don't know if these will be significant or not, but I have learned through experience to keep everything in mind. You never know what turns the day will take.

I continued around the loop hoping for more scrub jays and White-winged dove. I came up with none of either, but did find some interesting habitat on the east side of the loop. Serene Drive, bisecting the loop, had an old orange grove that was yet to be developed. This habitat was in short supply in my limited knowledge of the county. Ididn't find anything interesting at this time, but it was getting late. Sunday we planned to be here earlier.There wasn't much else to see on this day. I checked a flooded pasture for shorebirds and spotted only Killdeer. I timed a route out on SR 74to SR 31 and down into Lee County. If we were really doing well ontime, we could try this route for caracara and Swallow-tailed kite; both of which I saw on this trip. My final note was a Bald eagle on a nest on the east side of Jones Loop, not far from the starting and ending point of the competition. Another backup spot. After this, it was on to the FOS meeting.

Sunday, Team Punk and Lynn Bates would make our run at the record. That story will have to wait as I need my sleep tonight.

Part Two

I suppose you're wondering what became of Team Punk and Lynn last Sunday. Well, here's how it went.

We got together in the parking lot at the Jones Loop rest area (exit161 on I-75) for the send off. After packing Lynn's car and meeting Jamie, our traveling reporter, we set out at 0603. In order to prevent bottlenecking, the teams drew lots to determine the order of departure.We were second in line. The teams left at one minute intervals. Each team had six hours from their start time to return.Our first stop was, of course, "The Webb" (Babcock-Webb WMA) just a few miles south. I hate to be like everyone else, but I didn't have any other legitimate options. There were some RCW trees along SR 74 eastof US 17, but I'm not sure if we could pick up the other target species. Maybe next year, the people who don't remember reading this will be surprised when we take off to the north instead of following the herd to "The Webb. "

Upon arrival, we headed to the fishing pond on the right after passing the hunter check station. I hoped to pick up a Least bittern in the dawn's early light. We began to add species to the list, but no bitterns. Onward. We stopped a few places on Tucker Grade and played tapes for King rail. On our second or third stop we picked up King rail and a bonus Sora. I think it was at the same spot that we saw an American bittern. Two bonus birds already! I began to realize that we had jeopardized our chances at Grasshopper sparrow by not heading south on Oil Well Grade in the early light. I didn't worry about it since we had time and other places for this species. We headed to the back of the public access area and turned left. Along the back stretch, we stopped for Hairy and Red-cockaded woodpecker. I found a pair of Hairies here in scouting and saw white bands on the trees. We failed to find either species in a short time, and I wanted to keep moving to more proven RCW spots. We stopped a few more times, once for a possible Hairy woodpecker that turned out to be a calling Eastern phoebe. We heard a Greater yellowlegs, a species of special concern for this competition. I think we picked up Chipping sparrow here, another bonus bird. If we could get all of the targets here and acouple more bonuses, maybe we could beat the 100 mark. We headed west on Tram Grade with the sun at our back. A few teams were making the circle in the opposite direction. We picked up RCW at two spots along the way and most of the rest of our targets. We stopped at the corner of Oil Well and Tram Grade to walk the woods in search of missing targets. We heard King rail and Least bittern (another bonus!) in the nearby marsh. We still needed Hairy woodpecker, Brown-headed nuthatch,and Grasshopper sparrow. A woodpecker was drumming nearby and we went to investigate. It flew, looking suspiciously Hairyish. I briefly saw it on a snag in the distance and the bill looked right. We ran closer and finally it gave up its specific identity as Picoidesvillosus. Driving slowly to Hidden Lake, we were able to find nuthatches. A brief look at the edge of the lake failed to produce any bonus shorebirds. We turned around and headed south of Tucker Gradefor a late and unsuccessful attempt at Grasshopper sparrow. We had one last hope for this species at Aqui Esta Ponds. We left "The Webb" with only one missing target and several bonus birds. We didn't have a strict schedule, nor were we keeping mileage or a running list. It was at this point that I began contemplating the real possibility that we would hit 100.

We made a detour to a local park that Lynn knew of in the hopes of finding Blue-winged teal. No teal, but more quail and other birds. We headed to Washington Loop next. I wanted to hit this important songbird area early. We made a token stop at the woodpecker farm and came up empty-handed once again. I had checked several spots in scouting and had not found any. It seems that species is no longer a gimme for me in this county. Hathaway Park produced all of it's targets plus a few more bonuses. The Limpkin was calling, but we had already heard the one at Webb. Great-crested flycatcher called in the distance.Titmice were almost immediately heard, though I did not see them again today. Along one of the trails, I spotted an Ovenbird. Bonus! We eventually found the goldfinches and a screech owl in one of the nestboxes. Bonus! I was the only one to hear the kinglet (and then only twice across a pond) so we left with two bonuses and one miss. Not bad.

The next stop was Serene Dr. where I hoped to find something in the groves this time. We headed down the road until a flock of Pine warblers crossed our path. We got out of the car and checked for other warblers and song birds. Andy spotted a Red-headed woodpecker in the yard in front of us. Good job, Punk! I don't know if that's a bonus or a target. We walked the road along the orange grove next door, but did not find anything else. This was a productive diversion, and a back up spot for RH woodpecker if I was to do a March Big Day on the last day of the month.

Back to the loop and back to lovely US 17. We picked up scrub jay, but still no White-winged dove on the north side of the loop. US 17 produced the usual number of caracaras, zero. I guess you need to get closer to Arcadia before you find them. The Snail kite in DeSoto was gone from it's Friday haunt. We took the time to tally the list while out of bounds in DeSoto County. I think we had 76 at this point. It dawned on us that we could make 100 if the shorebirds along Charlotte Harbor cooperated. We would need Lynn's local knowledge for this to happen. We skipped Deep Creek and headed to Harbor Heights Park forYellow-crowned night-heron. We easily found this and our other target,Yellow-throated warbler. Before we left we tallied a bonus Housesparrow.

Now we must be somewhere in the 80's. We headed west toward the harbor, it was time for Lynn to fill in some gaps. En route, we drove down the little dirt road where I had staked out Black-crowned night-heron on Friday. The spot performed like a champ. Once acrossUS 41, Lynn showed us several vistas on the way to the Port Charlotte Beach Complex. We found bonus Spotted and Least sandpipers along with Herring gulls, Royal terns, and several other species. At the park, we finally spotted Sandwich tern. We continued the search for bay ducks. I found a Red-breasted merganser and pointed it out to The Punk. When he went back to his 'scope, he bumped one of the legs of the tripod. When he looked through the 'scope, there was a Common loon. We decided that we had found most of our targets, although we still lacked turnstone. I had found them in scouting, so we hoped we would still pick up this species. We felt confident that we had hit the century mark at this point, but we didn't take the time to count.

We had a few more spots on the pre-determined route before opening the floor to suggestions. We headed to Ponce DeLeon Park to check for more shoreline birds. En route we detoured down Tropicana Dr. to pick up Burrowing owl. We quickly saw an owl on one of the five staked outburrows. There was a large flock of scaup in the channel nearby, so we walked over to the sea wall and began to scope the situation. Andy checked the gulls and terns across the way and I looked for Greater scaup. I finally found a female Greater and showed The Punk. There was a lone Blue-winged teal in the scaup. A Mottled duck flew into the flock and we had three bonus ducks to add to our target owl.When we finally got to the Ponce DeLeon park, we got nothing. Not even a Prairie warbler. We could have stayed and tried for the warbler, but there was one singing at the park near Aqui Esta and we still needed the resident Cooper's hawks. So it was off to Aqui Esta. We pulled in behind the stores and found our first moorhen, grebe, Hooded merganser,and Ring-necked ducks. We also found several Savannah sparrows, but no Grasshopper sparrow. Across the street, we heard Prairie warbler before we even got to the trail head. We immediately got back in the van, forgetting that Cooper's hawk was also a target. Not bad. We seem to get 4-5 species every time we stop. Do we stop and count? Not yet, we still have a few spots to check and an hour or so until the final tally.

We checked a spot for Muscovy duck but came up empty. At this point we were just going here and there, scrambling to get what few species were left. We checked around the harbor east of US 41 and still failed to find the Ruddy turnstones. I spotted an oystercatcher as we headed south and we turned around to find it. Finally, we did see it from one of Lynn's local vistas. A few more stabs and we decided to get near the ending spot so we would not be penalized for being late. The last of Lynn's hotspots was the large man-made pond across Jones Loop from the rest area. This is the spot where Black-necked stilts often appear. There would be none on this day, although Andy did spot some yellowlegs on the far shore. Heat shimmers made it impossible to tell if these were the Lessers we still needed. Further scanning along theshoreline found several groups of yellowlegs, the nearest of which could be IDed as Lesser. Andy also spotted a Black-bellied plover on the near shore, another bonus. This brought our count to 114, assuming Andy can count. We already had eagle, so we went across the street tothe rest stop for some final scanning. We arrived at the table at1150, 13 minutes to spare. We told them we would wait to turn in our final numbers since there was always a chance of a fly by species. We scanned for Cooper's hawk, Swallow-tailed kite, anything that could add to the total. At 1202, with one minute left, we decided to turn in ourt ally. At 1203, a Savannah sparrow flew past us. Fortunately, we had already tallied that species.

This was great fun for a good cause. I hope we can do it again next year. Our team raised $176.70 for the cause. Next year, hopefully I will have more time to collect pledges and make an even more significant contribution.