Rare Bird Alert - report any rare or unusual bird sightings to Tony Menart at
(850)234-8042 or e-mail him at amenart@bellsouth.net. Your cooperation and help in
keeping the public informed about what birds are in the area is very important. These
records are sent to the Florida Ornithological Society for submission to the Florida
Field Naturalist publication. They are also sent to the American Birding Association
for inclusion in their reports.
Bird Counts - Bay County Audubon Society participates every year in the National
Audubon Christmas Bird Count, Great Backyard Bird Count, and North American
Migration Counts. For information on how to participate, contact coordinator/compiler
Lisa Keppner at 850-769-6247 or lkeppner@bellsouth.net.
Bay County Audubon has participated in the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) since 1965.
Our count circle is a 15 mile diameter centered near Airport Road and 19th Street of
Panama City in Bay County, FL and our CBC is usually conducted the Saturday
between Christmas and New Year’s Day. We welcome feeder watchers within the
circle as well as experienced and inexperienced birders to join our field teams. We
gather the evening of the count for a nice dinner before compiling results and sharing
stories. All of our CBC data can be accessed at http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/.
This year it will be held on Dec 19th with an after count tally and dinner at Sonny's
BBQ on St. Andrew's Blvd near 23rd Street
The Great Backyard Bird Count is held annually in February. Individuals are
encouraged to participate in this count independently but if you need help with bird
identification or with data entry, our members are available to help. For more
information and to participate, go to http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/.
Bay County Audubon has participated in the North American Migration Count since
Fall 2004. Counts are conducted on the second Saturday of May and the third
Saturday of September each year. Feeder watchers living anywhere in Bay County
and birders of all levels are encouraged to join us for this county-wide count.
Bay County’s circle results for the 110th Annual Christmas Bird Count
For the 46th consecutive year, Bay County Audubon scoured their 15-mile diameter count circle for every bird they could
find. Forty-five people volunteered on count day, December 19, 2009, to rack up 134 different species of birds and count
14,840 individual birds: that’s one species more but nearly 4,500 fewer individuals than last year. The circle was divided
into 13 areas with a team of 2-5 people covering each area. In addition, 5 Feeder Watchers who reside within the count
circle contributed valuable data they collected from their own back yards including the only hummingbird
(Kathy Poffenburger), red-headed woodpecker (Ginger Harbison), painted bunting (Nancy Roberts) and indigo bunting
(Susan Lamb) seen on count day.
Highest Species Count. Area 6, the Tyndall Air Force Base team, once again saw the greatest number of species, 87, on
count day. Their team consisted of Neil Lamb, Wendy Jones, Patty Kelly, Jared Kwitowski and Kevin O’Kane. Tyndall
was the only team to see wild turkeys (20), sora (1), piping plovers (3), marsh wren (1), winter wren (1), and field sparrow
(count week).
The Marifarms team covered Area 11 and recorded the next highest number of species at 64. Bradley Smith,
Bill McCandliss, Emily Ellis, and Chris Forman comprised the team. They brought in the only green heron (1),
black-crowned night-herons (13), Eastern screech owl (1), white-eyed vireo (1) and American crow (1) recorded for the
day.
Coming in 3rd, Ron Houser’s team covered Area 8 which included St. Andrews State Park and the portion south of
Grand Lagoon that is within the count circle. Ron, Diane Houser, Brian Specht and Kennard Watson recorded 63 different
species of birds on count day.
Results for the remaining teams follow:
Area 2 “Airport Area”: Al Clare and Mike Finnegan. 60 species
and the only team to see golden-crowned kinglets (4)
Area 12 “Deerpoint”: Beth & Jim Miller 57 species
and the only team to see vesper sparrows (2) and boat-tailed grackles (15)
Area 3 “College Point”: Ed & Lisa Keppner and David Brahier 56 species
and the only team to see an orange-crowned warbler (1)
Area 9 “Bay Point”: Tony Menart and John & Marsha Benton 56 species
and the only team to see a reddish egret (1) and Baltimore oriole (1)
Area 4A “Bylsma”: Rick Holden and Jeff Palgut 55 species
and the only team to see a black and white warbler
Area 10 “Breakfast Pt.”: Mary Jo Capra, Chris Bettendorf, Beth Wright 52 species
and the only team to see American wigeons (17)
Area 5 “Parker”: Candis Harbison, Ruby Jo Faust, Janice Lucas and Louisa Taylor 48 species
and the only team to see a sandwich tern (1) and Western kingbird (2)
Area 7. “Shell Island”: Joe Harbison, John Oswald and John Valenta 44 species
and the only team to see semipalmated plovers (15)
Area 1. “St. Andrews”: Janet Gladis, John Donlon and Ruth Mooney 43 species
and the only team to see black skimmers (8)
Area 4B. “Callaway”(smallest one): Ann & Richard Ingram 38 species
and the only team to see the graylag goose (2)
Highest Individual Count. The Shell Island team, Area 7, has the distinction of counting the most birds at 1,879 individuals.
Joe Harbison, John Oswald and John Valenta made up the Shell Island team. Area 2 counted 1,659 individuals and
Area 6 counted 1,626 individuals to place 2nd & 3rd respectively in this category.
Species of Interest. Two mute swans were seen on count day, one adult and one juvenile and
were recorded by two groups. Both swans ended up at Martin Lake and were documented with photos taken by Janice
Lucas. This is only the 2nd time mute swans have been seen on our Christmas Bird Count (CBC).
Sandhill cranes were spotted a couple weeks prior to the CBC at the sod farm in Southport and many of us had the
opportunity to view these beautiful birds for the first time in Bay County. The sod farm lies just outside the count circle so
birds seen there couldn’t be counted for the CBC but thanks to some ever-vigilant birders, Tony Menart and Gail &
Fred Casteel; and Rick Holden and Jeff Palgut who were out scouting, sandhill cranes were seen flying overhead in the
count circle a couple days before the count so we were able to record them for count week. This will be the 4th time this
species was recorded for our CBC.
White-winged doves (8) were seen and documented by both the Bay Point and Shell Island team on count day. This is
only the 5th time they have been recorded for our CBC.
Two Western kingbirds were seen by the Parker team on count day. One was seen by the same team last year and one
by the Tyndall team the year before: the only three records we have for this bird in the history of our count.
Neil and Susan Lamb, who live within the count circle, had been hosting a first year male indigo bunting prior to the count.
It is a common transient that can be seen occasionally in winter but we had never before recorded and documented this
species for the CBC. Neil, being the consummate birder that he is, photographed the bird and familiarized Susan with
everything she needed to know to spot this bird on count day while he was off with his team covering the Tyndall area.
Thanks to them both, we were able to document the indigo bunting and include it in our CBC for the first time.
Nancy Roberts came through for us again with her female painted bunting on count day. This is at least the 4th year this
bird has been spending the winter at Nancy’s and the 3rd year in a row she has reported it for our CBC. Nancy says that
the bird’s mate joins her for a week or so each spring then they leave together for their breeding ground.
Beth and Jim Miller found a group of boat-tailed grackles (15) in the Deerpoint area during their 1st CBC three years ago
and have documented them every year since. Prior to that, boat-tailed grackles had only been officially reported on two
of our CBCs. I thought it was interesting to note, however, that 18 years ago on our count, 1,506 boat-tailed grackles
were tallied.
Finally, the Baltimore oriole (1) was documented for only the 3rd time ever on our CBC this year by Tony Menart and the
Bentons. They saw and photographed the first year male on count day at Rick Seltzer Park located off Jan Cooley Drive
in Panama City Beach.
By participating in the CBC, I hope you had fun. Even more importantly, you have made an enormous contribution to
conservation. So on behalf of the birds, National Audubon and Bay County Audubon, I would like to thank each and every
one of you for donating your time, resources and expertise to this endeavor. Let’s do it again next year!
Yours truly,
Lisa Keppner, Bay County Audubon CBC coordinator
Adventure Film Series. This is our only fund-raising activity for the
year. Each January and February we offer three high quality nature/travel films which
are personally narrated by the cinematographer. The films are held at Arnold High
School Auditorium at 550 Alf Coleman Road near Back Beach Road at 7:00 PM.
Tickets are $5.00 per film; season tickets for all three films are $12.00. For no waiting
in line, purchase season tickets at the January membership meeting, by mail, or at the
first film. A nice door prize will be given at each film.
The 2011 films were:
Jan 19 -“TBA"
Feb 8 - “TBA”
Feb 22 - “TBA”
These were outstanding films. If you missed out last year, plan to attend the next
series in January, 2011.
