December 2025 Newsletter

Have you wanted to attract bluebirds to your own garden? This month learn more about the Eastern Bluebird and how to become a successful host to them in your own backyard. While Pasco Audubon has installed and monitored Eastern Bluebird boxes in Starkey Park and locations around West Pasco for many years, you may want to have them closer to home. Learn more about the Eastern Bluebird, how to attract them to your property and how to keep a nest box safe from predators. Bob coordinates our Bluebird Project, building, repairing and coordinating monitoring efforts.

For this occasion Bob has built a new bluebird house with a predator guard, and it will be raffled off as a door prize at this event. Bob will even install it for the lucky winner! Everyone attending this free event will receive a ticket as they enter, and the winner will be drawn at the conclusion of the event. Must be present to win. Read more about the potluck brunch and Board elections on the next page.

This event is free, and will take place at the Starkey Environmental Education Center in Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park at 11am on Saturday, December 6th. Brunch will be available from 10:30am, so do arrive a bit earlier than usual to meet and greet everyone. As always, there will be a bird walk in Starkey Park from 8am the same morning - meet in the education center parking lot. You’ll be back at the center to enjoy brunch!

On the front page you read all about our feature presentation on being a successful bluebird landlord. Additionally, our December meeting includes our celebratory holiday potluck brunch. Our Board will provide coffee, bottled water, and a large platter of bagels and cream cheese, paper plates, plasticware and cups. At our last meeting some of our participants said they would bring chicken salad, a vegetable tray and date nut cake. We hope you’ll join in with a dish of your choice. Remember - not too much please - we’ll all be bringing something! We’ll make the bagels etc. available prior to the presentation, and we’ll save some dishes and deserts for after the presentation, before our brief business meeting.

Those of you who are officially members of Pasco Audubon will be asked to vote on our Board nominees. As we have 4 nominations and 4 candidates, this should be brief. Our candidates are Bob Burkard, Phil Duncan, Pat Goldberg and Christine Rowland. Our Treasurer, Joanne Chamberlain, will give a brief report and our Board members will be available for Q & A. 

For our Saturday, December 13th Pasco Audubon Birding-by-Bike outing, we will meet in the education center parking lot at Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park and will explore the park along the multi-use trail. We will meet at 8:00 am. This trip is led by Bob Burkard, and you can reach Bob with questions or to register at robertburkard9@gmail.com .

This year will be the 126th annual Christmas Bird Count. For our West Pasco circle, centered in the former Magnolia Valley golf course, this will be the 37th annual count. While the count window spans from December 14th till January 6th, each count circle takes a specific day within that time frame – and this year we are taking Monday, December 15th. We will have 24 hours to find every bird we can within our circle. This is a major community science project in which we are always enthusiastic to participate. It’s not just about the species we see, but also those we don’t see – which birds are less common or no longer found here. Also, identifying birds that may be new to our area. By participating annually we are able to contribute to an understanding of how birds are responding to changes in our area – whether the cause be development or climate or some other factor. Its always interesting!

So far 38 birders have signed up to help us bird our circle in teams during the morning. Each team or individual takes a specific assigned area and surveys all the birds in that area – all the species they can find and a careful count of the birds. At lunch time many of us gather together at Heartwood Preserve with our compiler, Bill Pranty, to chart out our morning’s findings on a large master board prepared by Peter Day. While the results come in, our tired birders get a well-earned break, with pizza and soda. After lunch those who are able to continue will go out again to look for species no one saw in the morning.

Water Lily by Noriko Buckles

The Pasco Audubon Camera Club had its first meeting on November 1st, followed by an outing at Honeymoon island on November 8th. We discussed our goals for the group and schedule for the year.

Our next meeting will be Saturday Dec 20, 2025 at 10 am. It will be at a different location, Starkey Ranch Theatre Library Culture Center in the Egret room. Each member will show three photographs from the outing or photos that they would like to share. At each outing there will be an assignment. At Honeymoon Island it was to photograph something "white". Our next outing will be to the John Chesnut Senior Park in January, where the assignment will be to photograph something "Circular" .

All interested people are welcome to attend. Questions? Reach Noriko at Nbucklesphoto@gmail.com

This year our weekend birding trip will be held over the January 31-February 1 weekend. Last year we visited Miami, and had a wonderful time. This time around we’re heading up to the Panhandle, where a Saturday visit to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge will form the anchor of our visit, but we’ll also take in a couple of other hotspots. The Panhandle does see some birds we do not get in the Tampa Bay area, and we’ll certainly be trying to take in some of those while we’re there.

Last year we were lucky enough to have Klenisson Brenner show us around Miami and surrounding area. This year we will have Kimberly Snaric, who moved up there from our own area earlier this year. She is looking forward to sharing some of her new favorite places to bird with us. It’s always good to have a local show us around! While ‘the main event’ will be a full day Saturday and Sunday morning through lunch time, we know that some of you will want to arrive the day before (its about a 4 hour drive from New Port Richey) in order to take full advantage of the opportunity. I’m sure we can arrange a late afternoon/evening birding experience for those who arrive early and would enjoy that. 

More details will be available in next month’s newsletter, but for those who like to reserve hotel space early, you should know that Crawfordsville is the closest town to St Marks, and is where you are probably best off staying. A simple Internet search will provide you with several options nearby. Anthony and I will stay at The Best Western Wakulla Inn and Suites, which has reasonable rates. We hope that you decide to join us on this adventure.

Our field trip began on Dunedin Causeway, where a group of us (22 in total), including the camera club, had an opportunity to view shorebirds, gulls, terns and pelicans out on the flats, as tide was out. Some of the species seen here included the majestic American White Pelicans, tall and elegant Marbled Godwits, and a solitary American Oystercatcher. 

The low tide meant we needed to adjust our game plan for the walk, and we began on the Osprey Trail. While the trail was generally quiet, we were excited to see Magnificent Frigatebirds flying overhead - a life bird for some in our group. And as we exited the trail we were lucky to find a Cooper’s Hawk posing very conveniently for us. 

We followed the trail with a visit to the lagoon at the nature center, and then a smaller group of birders walked the trail to the southern tip of the key, enjoying the native butterflies and grasses along the way. You can see more photographs on our eBird list for Honeymoon Island at https://ebird.org/checklist/S283545029 , and for Dunedin Causeway at https://ebird.org/checklist/S283543304 . 

On November 22nd, 10 of us met up to bird this vast and birdy location. Taking careful note of recent eBird reports, we all met up outside the gates to see three visiting rarities - the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, a Western Kingbird and an Ash-throated Flycatcher. The birds came in and put on a show for us before we even entered the drive - a great opportunity for all of us to see these uncommon visitors. 

Once inside we had the opportunity to see a wide range of ducks and wetland birds, making frequent stops to observe and photograph. Some of our more interesting sightings included American Wigeon, Fulvous Whistling-Ducks, Gray-headed Swamphen and American Bittern. Most of us were fortunate enough to get really good looks at a Peregrine Falcon perched in a pine tree near the exit. You can find our list and see lots of photos at https://ebird.org/checklist/S285670753 .

Are you interested in becoming a member of Pasco Audubon, but you just don’t know how it works? Maybe you have attended a walk with us, or an educational meeting, and you’d like to get more involved? Well, this is for you!

Actually, you don’t really have to be a member at all to join in on our outings and/or or meetings. However, if you love birds and want to join with the organization that helps them, here is what you need to know:

Pasco Audubon itself does not require membership. Essentially, if you sign up to become a member, you are really joining National Audubon. However, joining through Pasco Audubon means our chapter will receive a portion of the funds. National Audubon requires a donation/membership of at least $20.00 a year to be a member in good standing. Once you join initially, you will be added to the roster for National Audubon, and they will send you a welcome package. You will receive a membership card. Members also receive the Audubon magazine with gorgeous pictures and informative articles. 

After you join, your yearly renewals will be done right through National Audubon. You can send more than $20.00 if you like, but only $20.00 a year is required to receive membership benefits. Each year you will receive a new membership card and be entitled to Audubon magazine.

Of course, just to be clear, our Pasco chapter will gladly accept any separate donation that you would like to give.  

New Memberships

You can join the National Audubon Society via our local chapter through our webpage. You’ll find the form at https://pascoaudubon.com/join.html . 

Renewals

Membership renewal takes place directly through National Audubon. This link will take you to the correct page https://act.audubon.org/a/renew . 

Donations

Donations can be made through our website via Paypal at https://pascoaudubon.com/Donations.html

Questions about membership can be directed to Fran Sigurdson, Membership Chair at fsigurds@gmail.com .

Questions about donations or membership funds can be addressed to Joanne Chamberlain, Treasurer, at treasurer@pascoaudubon.com . 

January 3rd - 
8am - Monthly walk in Starkey Park
11am - Backyard Birds with Sanam Mehra

January 10th - Birding-by-Bike on the Pinellas Trail, starting from the Brooker Creek parking lot.

January 17th - Field Trip to Circle B Bar Preserve, Polk County

January 31st - February 1st - Panhandle Weekend (see p. 4)

Christine Rowland, President - president@pascoaudubon.com

Don Fraser, Vice President and Conservation Chair - PascoAudubonConservation@gmail.com

Joanne Chamberlain, Treasurer - treasurer@pascoaudubon.com

Kimberly Snaric, Secretary - pascoaudubon@gmail.com

Mike Kell, Web Master - jmike65@gmail.com

Patricia Goldberg, Special Projects - projects@westpascoaudubon.com

JoAnn Sinatra, At-Large

Ken Landry, At-Large

Other Important Contacts: 

Fran Sigurdson, Membership Chair - fsigurds@gmail.com

Bob Burkard, Birding by Bike and The Bluebird Project - robertburkard9@gmail.com

Hal Sigurdson, Photography Competition Coordinator - PascoAudubonPhotos@gmail.com