Day 84: March 24th - Bay Hill Golf Club

Partly sunny, mid-80s, threatening rain (but never did)

       Again, I’ll plead the case for golf courses against the better judgment of many of my cohorts.  If the golf course weren’t there, what might be occupying the space instead.   Ideally, it would be forest, plains, wetlands, or other natural habitat.  Realistically, it would much more likely be paved parking lots, strip malls, condos, or housing developments.

       With golf courses you get fresh water, grasslands, scrub, woods, and edges.  Any birder who birds well developed and managed golf courses will tell you that they are in truth fine birding habitat.  Today, as I followed a former student from the high school in which I taught, James I. O’Neill High School, competing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational Tournament at Bay Hill Golf Club, I counted numerous species of fine Florida birds.  Great blue heron, Great egrets, Black ducks, Red-shouldered hawks, American and Fish crows, Tricolored herons, Blue jays, Carolina wrens, and on and on were all present in abundance.

       Sitting in the bleachers at the 18^th hole, I watched a dozen White ibises fly into a large live oak adjacent to the green.  In a tree overhanging the 6^th tee, a large group of Double-crested cormorants perched as if oblivious to the crowds below. 

DC Cormorants over Tee #6

         Walking across the 17 fairway, we were almost impaled by two Great blues flying at eye-level  directly in front of us.  On the 16^th hole, an Osprey hit the water of the pond adjacent to the green and emerged with a small fish. 

     
        Often, as I watch tournaments on television, I find myself making a list of all the birds I hear in the background singing and chipping.  Bottom line, golf courses attract a wide variety of birds and are probably a more beneficial use of the land than other options that the society at large may choose.