Shorelines
The newsletter of the Choctawhatchee Audubon Society
Calendar of Events
MONTHLY MEETINGS:
Audubon meetings are held at 7 p.m. on the
OWC Niceville campus, Student Union,
Building K, Room K-151.
February 3: Dr. Robert Larson, a local
lecturer and sculptor, will give a presentation,
"Sculpting, Planting a Vision." He will explain
about the Shoal Sanctuary and Sculpture Trail,
land near the Shoal River he and his wife pur-
chased to preserve the natural environment.
He may share some of its interesting history.
March 3: Paul Thorpe with the Northwest
Florida Water Management District will talk
about timely water issues in Northwest Florida
and alternative drinking water sources.
April 7: Mr. M.C. Davis will give an update
on the environmental restoration work done on
Nokuse Plantation and Mallory Swamp in Walton
County.
CHAPTER WALK:
February 5: Beginner's bird walk to the Fort
Walton Beach spray fields and holding ponds.
Meet in the Coach-N-Four Restaurant parking lot
at 7:30 a.m. This easy walk will last until about 10
or 11 a.m.
ANNUAL RETREAT:
February 19-21, 2005: Choctawhatchee
Audubon Society Annual Retreat Weekend
Shell Island Fish Camp and Marina,
St Marks, FL
AUDUBON EVENTURE’S NIGHT WALK:
February 25: Nonie's Ark Animal Encounters
will lead a Discover Nature Night Walk. Meet at
5:30 pm at Turkey Creek Nature Trail in Niceville.
Dedicated to the protection of bird and wildlife habitat and a greater appreciation of Northwest Florida’s natural beauty.
Volume XXXIV Number 1
February 2005
Annual Retreat of the
Choctawhatchee
Audubon Society
Promising two days of great birding in the St. Marks
Wildlife Refuge and Wakulla Springs State Park areas.
Some of the best bird authorities in the area will be
there - you don't want to miss this opportunity!
When: February 19-21, 2005
Where: Shell Island Fish Camp and Marina,
State Road 363 - Riverside, St Marks, FL
Cabin/motel reservations: 1-800-925-6226 (make sure to
mention Choctawhatchee Audubon Society)
Motel - $51.00 per night for two people
Cabin - $62.00 per night for one to four people. Cabins have
two bedrooms (two beds to a room), microwave, coffee
maker, stove and refrigerator. All linens are included, but you
must bring food, utensils etc.
Agenda:
Saturday the 19th: Meet at 12:00pm for lunch, then birding
until Social Hour, (held in Charlie Parkel 's cabin). Everyone
brings snacks and favorite libation. Then, off to dinner. Some
might opt to go Owling that night.
Sunday the 20th: Birding at St. Marks all day. Dinner at the
Wakulla Lodge.
Monday the 21st: Tentative plans to take the boat ride
at Wakulla where there are many water birds to see. Then,
all meet for a compilation of species seen throughout the
weekend. On the way home, all are invited to stop at a fine
restaurant called "That place on 98". Pat Baker is a personal
friend of the owner and promises "great food"!
For more information, please contact:
Charlie Parkel at 678-4728 or
Pat Baker at (850) 678-2953 or
flabirder@cox.net

2004 Christmas Bird Count
Donald M. Ware, Bird Count Coordinator
On December 20th our 15 birding teams
found 19,429 birds of 141 species on the
Choctawhatchee Bay, FL CBC. Our weather was
cold and clear with little wind inland. Temperatures
ranged from 23 to 50 degrees F. Our most numerous
species this year were 1689 Double-crested
Cormorants, 1551 European Starlings, and 1523
Laughing Gulls. There were eight species found dur-
ing count week that were not found on the count day,
those in bold face being quite unusual: Greater
Scaup, Wild Turkey, Black Rail (NEW to our count),
Sandhill Crane, Dunlin, Stilt Sandpiper (NEW), Black
Skimmer, and Western Kingbird. I flushed the rail
from the north side of the Okaloosa landfill pond, and
it was number 4244 on my life list.
Our team leaders were John Duresky, Don Ware,
Lois Gilman, Laura Catterton, Alan Knothe, Charlie
Parkel, Kathy/Patrick Gault, Carole/Phil Goodyear,
Bob McKenney and Gene Estes, Bob/Betsy Reid,
George/Judy Russell, Bob/Lucy Duncan, and Jim
Kowalski with Bill Bremser as a rover. There were 34
participants.
The biggest surprise was a very late Wood Thrush
(NEW) found foraging in a yard at Cinco and Pelham
in Ft. Walton Beach by Jim Kowalski. We were also
fortunate to have Fred Bassett here on the count day
banding hummingbirds. He banded 1 Ruby-throated,
1 Rufous and 2 Black-chinned Hummingbirds, all in
Niceville. Kowalski found a second Ruby-throated
Hummingbird in FWB. We were fortunate to find 16
species of ducks: Wood Duck, Green-winged and
Blue-winged Teal, Mallard, Northern Shoveler,
Gadwall, American Wigeon, Canvasback, Redhead,
Ring-necked Duck, Greater and Lesser Scaup,
Bufflehead, Hooded and Red-breasted Merganser,
and Ruddy Duck.
We found an amazing nine species of warblers:
Orange-crowned, Nashville, Yellow, Yellow-rumped,
Yellow-throated, Pine, Palm, Wilson's Warbler and
Common Yellowthroat. We also found a wintering
Summer Tanager and nine species of sparrows:
Chipping, Field, Vesper, Savannah, Le Conte's,
Song, Lincoln's, Swamp, and White-throated
Sparrow.
I thank all participants for a great job. The complete
database can soon be accessed at
www.audubon.org/bird/cbc, and I usually have extra
hard copies of the tally sheet at our monthly meet-
ings. The count code is FLCB. Please mark your
calendars for our next CBC on 19 Dec 05.
WAKULLA SPRING: A GIANT AMONG US
(extracted from The Florida Fish and Wildlife News,
November/December 2004)
Submitted by member Lenny Fenimore:
Wakulla Spring, one of Florida's most renowned water-
sheds, is now only a click away for virtual adventurers.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection
(DEP) has launched Wakulla Spring: A Giant Among Us,
an enhanced interactive website that allows visitors to
explore Wakulla Spring and gain insight into the impor-
tance of protecting this valuable watershed.
"This new website uses state-of-the-art design to bring
this majestic Florida spring into homes across the
globe," said DEP's Florida Springs Initiative Director,
Mike Bascom. "Raising awareness about the impor-
tance of Wakulla Spring and Florida's 'bowls of liquid
light' protects water quality and promotes the recre-
ational value of these unique natural wonders."
At Wakulla Spring: A Giant Among Us, interactive
springshed maps trace the flow of water from backyards
across North Florida into Wakulla Spring, demonstrating
how personal pollution can impact water quality. Virtual
tours with park rangers and scientists also take visitors
on wildlife encounters and deep underwater dives into
the caves of Wakulla, while exploring the history and
diversity of the spring and surrounding area.
One of the largest in the world, Wakulla Spring flows
from an underground river at 175,000 gallons per
minute. The 6,000-acre Edward Ball Wakulla Spring
State Park is home to the popular swimming hole and
1937 Wakulla Lodge.
The Florida Springs Initiative, established by Governor
Jeb Bush in 2001, is the first-ever comprehensive, coor-
dinated plan to restore and protect Florida's more than
700 freshwater springs.
For more information about Florida's "bowls of liquid
light," visit www.floridasprings.org.
Visit the Wakulla Spring Website at
www.floridasprings.org/exploration/featured/wakulla/.
Audubon Academy 2005
March 18 - 20, 2005
Eckerd College, St. Petersburg off of I-275
A selection of 11 participatory workshops plus field
trips and social events
$25 for all three days
(plus travel and accommodations)
Registration information and forms are posted on
http://www.audubonofflorida.org
 Mary A. Hood, CAS Member Recently Published!
THE STRANGLER FIG AND OTHER TALES: FIELD NOTES OF A CONSERVATIONIST

Hood's travel memoir is a lyrical journey to places of great natural beauty and biological importance.
As a poet and a scientist, she uses the language of both to recapture our human connection to nature.
Her stories of tropical rain forests, deserts and prairies reveal the vulnerability of natural places and the
consequences of unsustainable exploitation and urbanization. These essays are an act of conservation,
to preserve places encountered and cared about, as part of our biological and historical heritage. This
inspiring and informative work will be valuable for those interested in nature or travel memoirs, creative
writing, ethnographic writing, and for all who are concerned with our broader sense of place in the
global environment. Published by: http://www.altamirapress.com/ISBN/0759106770

Bird Extinctions May Impact Environment

Reprinted from AP Newswire

About 10 percent of all bird species face extinction by the end of the century
and 15 percent more are on the brink, according to researchers who say such
extinctions would have a widespread impact on the environment, agriculture
and human society.

"Important ecosystem processes, particularly decomposition, pollination and

seed dispersal, will likely decline as a result of the loss of bird species”, said
Cagan H. Sekercioglu of the Stanford University Center for Conservation
Artwork by David Sibley
http://www.sibleyguides.com Biology.

The forecast of Sekercioglu and colleagues, published online Monday by Proceedings of the National Academy of
Science, comes a month after the World Conservation Union reported a continuing loss of species, including an estimate
that 12 percent of birds are threatened with extinction.

The Stanford estimate was based on a year of study and a computer calculation of three possible scenarios. The result
was a forecast that between 6 and 14 percent of all bird species will be extinct by 2100 and 700 to 2,500 species will be
critically endangered or extinct in the wild.

"Given the momentum of climate change, widespread habitat loss and increasing numbers of invasive species, avian
declines and extinctions are predicted to continue unabated in the near future," Sekercioglu said.

Such losses, the team said, could have a significant impact in many aspects of society. For example, birds pollinate many
plant species and carry the seeds of others to new locations. "Declines in pollination and seed dispersal as a result of
bird extinctions may lead to extinctions of dependent plant species," they concluded. This is particularly important in
Australia, New Zealand and oceanic areas where pollination and seed dispersal by birds is more common, they said.

Another problem could occur with the loss of scavenging birds that help dispose of the bodies of large animals by con-
suming the flesh and leading other scavengers to the bodies, a process that helps limit the spread of disease from
decomposing carcasses. As an example, they noted that a sharp drop in the vulture population in India in the 1990s was
followed by a jump in the population of rats and wild dogs, some of which spread rabies.

Birds also eat millions of insects, and a decline in birds could lead to a dangerous increase in damaging pests, the
researchers said.

(The research was funded by Dr. Walter Loewenstern and the Koret and Winslow foundations.)
 CHAPTER
REPRESENTATIVES
Acting-President: Pat Baker: 678-2953, flabirder@cox.net
Vice president: Bill Burke: 678-0440, manateeadvocate@hotmail.com
Treasurer: Pat Gross: 609-0059, dachsie@cox.net
Recording secretary: Carole Goodyear: 897-2666, carolegoodyear@msn.com
Corresponding secretary: Pat Baker: flabirder@cox.net
Bird count coordinator: Donald M. Ware: 862-6582, donware@earthlink.net
Conservation committee chair: Mathilda Ravine: 243-2298, mathilda@cox.net
Education: Nonie Maines: 862-9588, nonie@noniesark.com
Field trips: Charlie Parkel: 678-4728
Hospitality: Gertrude Oakman: 729-2656
Membership & newsletter circulation: Bob Miller: 678-4278, bmiller@gnt.net
Publicity: Scott Addington: 862-1282, 2shorelines@earthlink.net
Programs: Lois Gilman: 651-5408, lgilman22@cox.net
Shorelines editor: Kendra Addington: 862-1282, 2shorelines@earthlink.net

Choctawhatchee Audubon Society Nonprofit Organization

Shorelines, December 2004
U.S. Postage PAID
P.O. Box 1014
Fort Walton Beach, FL
Fort Walton Beach, Florida 32549
Permit No. 110

Printed on recycled paper

Shorelines is published 10 times a year by Choctawhatchee
Audubon Society, Fort Walton Beach, Florida. It is sent to 500
members and community leaders. To become a sponsor, call
Kendra Addington at 862-1282. Your contributions will be tax-
deductible.
Newsletter sponsors:
Charlie Parkel, Niceville
In memory of Ken Proteau, Hamiliton and Renee Williams
Tree Planting with Jackson Guard Pam McKenzie, Los Lunas, NM
Julia Sublett, Shalimar
Business World, Fort Walton Beach
Every year community volunteers join with Jackson Elizabeth Milum, M.D., Dermatologist, Destin/Niceville
Guard to plant trees within our watersheds. The trees Wild Birds Unlimited, Destin
stabilize the soil and reduce the erosion that enters our Make sure you renew your local CAS membership when you
streams and smothers fragile habitat. The trees also renew your national Audubon membership. Please indicate that
help restore degraded areas to natural, forested condi- you’re affiliated with Choctawhatchee Audubon Society when you
tions. renew to ensure your subscription to Shorelines.
Most of the plantings will not last the entire time that has
been allotted. Help our environment and come join the
next planting: Introductory Audubon Society Membership (E-11):
Current members: Please do not use this form for membership renewals.
Friday, February 4th, 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM Name:__________________________________________________
Address:________________________________________________
If interested in a day of rewarding outdoor work please City:__________________ State:__________ Zip:_____________
respond by email to sign up: Phone: ________________ E-mail: _________________________
Introductory membership is $20/individual or $15/student or senior
Erica Schnarr citizen to join national, state, and local Audubon groups and receive
Volunteer Coordinator Audubon magazine and the Shorelines newsletter. To join, mail this
form and a check, payable to National Audubon Society, to NAS
Eglin AFB Natural Resources Membership Data Center, P.O. Box 51005, Boulder, CO 80323-1005.
erica.schnarr@eglin.af.mil Chapter Code: E-11 7XCH

© 2004 by Choctawhatchee Audubon Society. All rights reserved.