Birds of Crescent Lake

In 1918 Congress passed legislation to protect birds from being maliciously killed. To celebrate the centennial of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, National Geographic, the National Audubon Society, Bird Life International, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology partnered to declare 2018 the Year of the Bird. In the January 2018 issue of National Geographic magazine, best-selling author (and bird enthusiast) Jonathan Franzen kicked off the year by writing about “why birds matter.” And his longer answer began with this beautifully concise observation: “If you could see every bird in the world, you’d see the whole world.” And while Crescent Lake’s bird population may fall short of “every bird,” you’d be forgiven for thinking it comes pretty close.

So Many Birds!!

Visitors come to Crescent Lake Park for many reasons. The park has a historic baseball field, a walking path, two dog parks, and a playground as well as abundant green space. Visitors also will see birds. Lots of birds. According to the eBird Hotspot count, 127 different species have been spotted in the last 10 years, with 73 different sightings just this year. Ubiquitous Florida birds like parakeets, egrets, herons, limpkins, cormorants, anhinga, and bald eagles can be common sights year-round. Other, rarer birds also have made appearances at the lake including black-bellied whistling duck, American wigeon, mottled duck, pied-billed grebe, chimney swift, and ruby-throated hummingbird. Migrating birds, like the American white pelican, also have begun to make seasonal appearances. The lake has become one of Pinellas County’s favorite bird-watching venues. Its attraction, for people and birds, didn’t happen by accident. It’s the result of hard work.

The Evolution of an Ecosystem

The Friends of Crescent Lake has been central to that. As recently as 11 years ago, Crescent Lake was essentially “a bowl of water in the middle of a lawn,” chairwoman Lucy Trimarco says. The city’s practice of spraying the lake with herbicide produced algae blooms and left the lake mostly void of plants and wildlife. Wanting to improve the water quality and see the lake come alive again, community members partnered with the city and went to work. Learning that the lake was part of the Tampa Bay Estuary system gave them access to Tampa Bay Estuary Program grants that helped finance the necessary equipment for a monthly clean-up campaign as well as plantings. Almost 100,000 pounds of invasive water lettuce have been removed since just the spring of 2016. Regular removal means the city needs to spray only rarely, and new plant life can be introduced and maintained. The result is an invigorated wetland that helps to clean the water while also providing a habitat for renewed wildlife.

The Circle of Life

Birds returned to Crescent Lake, as did other Florida wildlife. The revitalized lake provides a source of constant fascination for area bird watchers and a fun learning experience for a novice Floridian like me. Trimarco was kind enough to share a number of stories about the evolving habitat of Crescent Lake Park, or the “Central Park of St. Pete,” as she calls it. In one, there were the mysterious attacks that left several geese injured. What were the culprits? Coyotes? Dogs? Coyotes would be the more exciting answer, but unleashed dogs are the more likely suspects. The geese have been relocated to a safer place, Trimarco told me.

My favorite story involves the humble limpkin and its food of choice, the tiny apple snail. Apparently the native apple snail was disappearing, generating a drop in the limpkin population. Then an invasive exotic and larger type of apple snail emerged, much to the limpkins’ delight. Limpkin populations increased again, only to be put (somewhat) in check by Crescent Lake-dwelling predators that target chicks and other juvenile birds. It’s nature’s circle of life at work, and you can see it unfolding every day at Crescent Lake Park.

Want to Know More About The Circle of Life and Why Birds Matter?

If you’d like to know more about Pinellas County birds, visit the St. Petersburg Audubon Society at www.stpeteaudubon.org.

For an up-close look at what’s happening at Crescent Lake (including the date for the next community volunteer clean-up day), check out the Friends of Crescent Lake Park on Facebook at www.facebook.com/friendsofcrescentlakepark.

If you’re a bird watcher and would like to report a sighting or see what (or who) is popping up at the lake this week, visit Crescent Lake’s ebird site at ebird.org/hotspot/L676978.