We're Lucky to Live in a Bird Paradise

Ann Paul, President

By Ann Paul, Tampa Audubon President

We really don’t recognize how lucky we are. We live in the United States with the best health care the world has ever known. We travel freely whenever and wherever we want, in air-conditioned comfort over roads that, if crowded, are designed to take us across a large, interesting, and beautiful country.

Our air and water are cleaner than they were in the 1970s, with provisions to safeguard our breathing and digestive systems (no diarrhea, thank you!). Regulations protect our food supply and our drugs. Natural areas have been set aside for our enjoyment and use and to provide habitats for the incredible wealth of our native wildlife. These rules are in place and will remain so, if we demand that our leaders retain them.

As a bird-watcher, I also recognize Florida is a bird paradise. After California and Texas, Florida has more bird species than any other state. We are constantly surrounded by birdlife – all we have to do is notice it.

Right now, the winter birds are still here. White Pelicans, ducks, mergansers and loons in the bay and lakes, Yellow-rumped and Palm warblers in our yards - the list goes on. All of these birds see Hillsborough County as a winter-time retreat. And now, the amazing spring migration is coming for our bird-watching pleasure.

The Tampa Bay area, including our county, is an avian cross-road. Thousands and thousands of birds move to their nesting sites in North America, washing across our skies. Soon the summer birds will arrive from their wintering vacations in Central and South America to nest here and raise their young. We can watch them with our binoculars – right here! Plus we have a broad range of birds that live here year-round, including herons and egrets, storks, cranes, cardinals, titmice and jays. It’s a wonderful list.

We are so fortunate to live here in this time and this place. So let’s all take a moment to be grateful, and take steps to make sure that these benefits are here for us and for the people who will live here in the future. No one has ever been this lucky before. Let’s work together to keep this lucky streak going!