This morning I was delighted by the number of birds in the area next to the sixth fairway on the Aquarina golf course. So many!! There were numerous wood storks, snowy egrets, little blue heron, and ibis all concentrated in that area. From my home I could see over 17 Ibis in the one bent live oak tree along hole seven's fairway. It was a who's who of the imperiled bird list.

On any given day in Aquarina you can see many of the birds on the FWC's imperiled bird list, including:

• Little Blue Heron
• Osprey
• Roseate Spoonbill
• Snowy Egret
• White Ibis
• and on the Federally Threatened list, the Wood Stork

Aren't we lucky that the superintendent of our golf course, Ron Holmes, led the effort for Aquarina Beach & Country Club to retain its designation as a "Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary" again this year?

It is no coincidence that many of our neighborhood HOAs are named after the very birds that we seek to protect here in our beloved Aquarina.

Most of these birds are considered imperiled because their habitat has been fragmented or eliminated by human development and agriculture. The remaining habitat, in many cases, is affected by human disturbance. 

As the Audobon Society noted, in their recent actions taken to protect Florida State Parks from development proposals over the Summer:

"Florida has no shortage of places to... try your hand at pickleball—but increasingly rare are the opportunities to spot the deep blue feathers of a Florida Scrub-Jay, witness the miracle of neotropical bird migration, or experience Florida in all its natural beauty."

Adding noise to this environment could have a serious impact upon our bird population. A 2020 large-scale nest study that shows how noise and light pollution alter bird reproduction, which "underscores the tremendous scale of human-made noise and light and their pervasive influence on important animals with which we share landscapes." This study fueled the Audobon's response to the development proposals of Florida State Parks.

Any day now we will get notification for the upcoming ACSA Booard meeting. According to the calendar, it is scheduled for Thursday, October 31st in the Main Room of the Aquarina Community Center.

It is our hope that the proposed Betterment of $100K for pickleball courts will be removed from the 2025 budget. If it is to be considered for a future budget, then multiple sites should be considered and analyzed with noise impact studies funded for each.

Gracious thanks to a neighbor for her beautiful photography.