Established 1966

June, 2026

June 2026 Newsletter

Pasco Audubon

Wood Duck by Christine Rowland

Summer Schedule

Please join us on Saturday, June 6th for our monthly walk in Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park. Please note that we'll be meeting up at the earlier summer start time of 7:30am, but in the usual location - the Education Center parking lot. We'll certainly be stopping by the newly restored bird blind (read more about the project on p.10). Recent rains have ensured that the water levels in Grassy Lake support many of our species, and we hope to see a good selection of waders, along with Wood Ducks and Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks. Please bring water with you - we'll plan for a two-hour walk across 1-2 miles.

As always, we are taking a summer break for June - September, although we will continue with our first Saturday of the month walks in Starkey Park (except July, when it falls on the 4th). Bob Burkard is also offering Birding-by-Bike outings during the summer with the exception of July (see p.2 for details). Also look for Photography Club events.

We hope that you enjoy this month's newsletter with a roundup of recent events, conservation reports (EagleWatch and the Bluebird Project) and the restoration of the bird blind in Starkey Park.

Upcoming Events

Saturday, June 6th 7:30 am Bird walk in Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park. Meet in the Education Center parking lot

Saturday, June 13th 8am Birding-by-Bike on the Pinellas Trail

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Scheduling for Birding-by-Bike by Bob Burkard

Our Saturday outing in June will be on June 13th. We will meet at the Brooker Creek Preserve parking lot and bike north on the Pinellas Trail. I love this location, which is a great place to see Southeastern American Kestrels, Eastern Kingbirds, Purple Martins and Eastern Meadowlarks. Remember to bring plenty of water and sunscreen.

Link to ebird for Brooker Creek Preserve and Surrounding areas: https://ebird.org/hotspot/L502704.

Southeastern American Kestrel on the Pinellas Trail

May 16th Field Trip: Pasco's Rural Birds

We were a small crew indeed for this particular trip. But the four of us had some good fortune. We set out from the McDonald's on Cortez Blvd at 8am and made our way south. Our scouting report indicated that our best luck with our target species would actually be later on our trail, so we planned to move swiftly through the early locations.

Indeed, Kettering Road (Hernando) is dotted with new construction and 'For Sale' signs - a sad omen. But we did make one stop at what appeared to be the one hold out farm, and were lucky enough to pick up Northern Bobwhite, Eastern Meadowlark and Eastern Bluebirds. Staying true to plan, we drove on to Power Line Road, where we began at the east end with the Purple Martin house (we saw maybe 3) and some Swallow-tailed Kites, before moving west along the road to a point beyond the top of the hill. Here we got luckier. As we pulled over we had a Red-headed Woodpecker on a fence post just across the street from us - excellent if brief photo op. And then Anthony spotted a Blue Grosbeak foraging on the south side of the street. A closer look revealed a female also - a good catch! Eastern Meadowlarks sang loudly, and we also saw a distant Red-tailed Hawk here, but silhouetted against the sun it did not make for great photographs. The south side of Power Line looks to be going the way of Kettering, with 'For Sale' signs up.

We made another stop further down Power Line, but without too much success we decided to head straight for Myers Road, which has proved productive for us over the past few years. It didn't disappoint this time either. We had a pair of Red-headed Woodpeckers giving very good looks and then had a male Summer Tanager pose for a shot from the fence. We felt quite honored. Moving a little further down the road we stopped to view a Red-headed Woodpecker nest I'd located the prior weekend, and then Pamela spotted a Sherman's Fox Squirrel - always a treat to see!

Our final stop for the morning was on Clay Hill Road, where we were lucky enough to find another male Blue Grosbeak, a pair of Summer Tanagers, and brief views of a Great Crested Flycatcher and Eastern Towhee. This trip would more accurately have been titled a rural trip along the border of Pasco and Hernando counties. The area is changing, but through this annual trip we bear witness to that change. A striking absence from our list was the non-migratory Southeastern American Kestrel - common here in springs past.

Red-headed Woodpecker by Christine Rowland

Blue Grosbeak by Christine Rowland

Photography Club Updates by Noriko Buckles

The May outing by the Pasco Audubon Photography club was to the St. Leo University's Grotto. Our assignment was to photograph "texture". We started by talking about what and how to photograph texture in nature. We didn't have to look too long as texture in nature was everywhere. The bark of the tree, gravel trail with roots of the trees, budding flowers, backlight palm leaf, stone walls of the grotto, etc etc.

We will be looking at members' photos from the outing at our next meeting on Saturday June 20th at New Port Richey Library at 10am. We will continue the discussion on photography competition and if time allows we will be talking about different post processings. UPDATE: As of May 30th this event has been cancelled.

Both photographs are examples of "texture", taken by Noriko Buckles

Birding Southern Costa Rica April 16-26 by Christine Rowland

Resplendent Quetzal by Christine Rowland

Baby Three-toed Sloth by Joe Colontonio

In April, eleven of us set off for Southern Costa Rica on another birding adventure. Our eleven day odyssey began at the Buena Vista Chic Hotel, with a beautiful view over San Jose and surrounding mountains, where we met our guide, David Mora.

Having an excellent guide makes a huge difference to a trip. Once again, Holbrook came through for us. David, at a youthful 26, knows the calls of hundreds of species, but can also imitate the calls - a skill he put to use frequently across the trip to draw birds into the open for us. He was also able to add some stops to help us see birds that would not otherwise have been seen, such as the Black-and-white Owl, the baby Common Potoo (where David had learned that it was located in a private yard a little off our route and arranged for us to visit), a Pearl Kite nest with three youngsters ready to fledge and nocturnal outings for owls and nightjars along with frogs and other creatures.

We began by heading to the coast, where we had a wonderful boat ride along the Tarcoles River. We had a dedicated boat that took us up and down river through a range of habitats, and we were able to move freely around the boat as we saw birds on one side or another. It was a relaxing yet exciting experience that we were all able to enjoy. Some of the avian highlights of the ride included Collared Plover, Northern Jacana, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Common Black Hawk, Gray Hawk, Black-headed Trogon, Turquoise-browed Motmot, Scarlet Macaw, Mangrove Swallow and Mangrove Yellow Warblers. But we saw more than birds, with American Crocodiles and Capuchin Monkeys also making an appearance.

Our trip took us along the coast to the south, giving us walks in the rain forest, a chance to enjoy the sunset over the Pacific, to look for birds in agricultural fields and the cloud forest, and high up in the paramo. We went south almost to the border with Panama, and then north again and into the mountains for the iconic Resplendent Quetzal. The variety of geographic locations and elevations from sea level to 10,000 feet helped to produce a list of about 335 species across the trip, with Pat and Jeff adding a day at each end for a number of additional species and opportunities.

Our accommodations varied from hotels, a rainforest lodge, student accommodations at Las Cruces Organization for Tropical Studies and cabins in the mountains in San Gerardo de Dota. We also went from heat and humidity along the coast to cabin heaters and hot water bottles in the mountains, so variety was definitely on the agenda as well. In all of our stops we were served wonderful food and met kind and helpful locals along the way.

While there is not enough space here to go through even a fraction of our adventures in Costa Rica, you can read a more detailed narrative account that accompanies our trip report at https://ebird.org/tripreport/50188 , and a large number of photographs of the species we saw can also be viewed there. Also, our travelers from both Costa Rica and Colombia trips will be sharing some of our wonderful experiences and photography at our opening event of the 2026-7 season on Saturday, October 3rd. We hope that you'll join us whether to travel vicariously or as you consider future travel plans yourself - more details to come soon...

Report: Eagle Watch Pasco Roundup 2025-26 by Kimberly Rexroat

Pasco County had a great Eagle Season! Of the 21 active nests that we are able to monitor, 17 nests produced eaglets. We had 34 eaglets hatch and 32 survived to fledge. PS006 (Werner Boyce North) successfully fledged 3 eaglets. PS014 (Anclote) had a mate change and the young female successfully raised her first eaglet to fledge! PS024 (Gulf Harbors) lost both their 8 1/2 week old eaglets when their nest fell. Both eaglets were rescued but later passed from their injuries. Both eaglets from PS003 fledged a little too early and ended up on the ground. They were both rescued and taken to the Raptor Center of Tampa Bay for assessment and then transferred to the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey to complete flight training. One of the eaglets has been released and is wearing a green auxiliary band with the number P08. The second eaglet is still at CBOP and will be released soon.

*Kimberly Rexroat is our Pasco County EagleWatch Coordinator

PS006 Triplets by Jean Kwasniewski

PS003 Legband by Kimberly Rexroat

Pasco Audubon Bluebird Project Update by Bob Burkard

What a difference the last few weeks have made for our nesting Eastern Bluebirds. While the recent rains have not been substantial enough to erase our drought conditions, they seemed to have jump-started our bluebirds to produce second broods across the locations where we have our nesting boxes. We currently have 22 active Eastern Bluebird nests, with 15 of these nests having second broods.

The female Eastern Bluebird at W.H. Jack Mitchell Jr. Park box #2 laid a second brood of white eggs. Laying white eggs is a recessive genetic trait for Eastern Bluebirds and a female must inherit the recessive gene from both parents to lay white eggs. Only 3% of Eastern Bluebird females lay white eggs.

Eastern Bluebird Fledge at Starkey Park

Starkey Bird Blind Renovation Project by Joanne Chamberlain

When Rick Chamberlain and Joe Colontonio went out to evaluate the blind, they found that after only six years most of the wood on the outside, (the 1 x 12s), was rotted on the bottom; on some pieces the rot came up as high as a foot. They could see that the plywood underneath was also at least partially rotten. So they decided it would be best to replace the outer wood with pressure-treated plywood, which will last much longer against the elements.

Pasco County Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Department agreed to buy the supplies for us, so we put together a list for Tim Perkins from J B Starkey Wilderness Park. Once the supplies were purchased, it was time to tear down the old wood, Rick and Joe working together. They discovered that the top 2/3 of the inner plywood was fine, so Tim purchased the plywood to replace the bottom, and tar paper for in between. On one of the longest workdays, Rick, Joe, Bob Burkard and Jarrett Chamberlain brought in all the supplies from the Starkey maintenance building, cut off and replaced the bottom inner plywood section and started putting up the outer plywood. It was at this point that sadly, the team suffered an injury – Bob’s leg - a piece of heavy plywood fell on it; his leg got very swollen and developed what Bob called an “extremely cool bruise”. Healing has been slow, but he’s been a real trooper through it all!

Rick, Joe and Jarrett continued. . . when the outer plywood was installed, they framed out the windows, beveling the bottom sills so rain will be diverted away. They added “battens” to cover the plywood edges, and some for trim between, then stained all the new wood, and it was finished! This version should last well for some time to come.

Rick also took home the bench he previously built, gave it a light sanding and recoated it with a nice varnish - prolonging its life as well!

The whole project took about 8 days and 55 hours, 4 men, a lot of laughs and quite a few groans. Thank you Pasco County, Tim, Rick, Joe, Bob and Jarrett!!!