I am changing this page to be the homepage for the topic "Birdwatching in IslandWalk". I will add links to later birdwatching posts chronologically at the bottom of this post. This post will be entered in the "Links" section of the blog.
I started counting birds in IslandWalk in January, 2016. Last week I entered my 200th complete checklist of birds counted in IslandWalk to ebird.org, the world headquarters of birdwatching. It is run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society. Here's the IslandWalk hotspot page from ebird.org:
https://ebird.org/hotspot/L4138659There have been
A couple of years ago I changed my counting methodology, and I wanted to document why and how.
IslandWalk is a gated community in northern Collier County, Florida. It is at the northeast corner of Vanderbilt Beach Road and Logan Boulevard, around 7 miles from the Gulf, ~9 miles as the crow flies from downtown Naples, and ~3 miles south of the Collier-Lee county line. It has a perimeter of 4.4 miles, so I'm guessing its area is ~1 square mile. Construction began in 1999 and I'm guessing lasted 4 years - each quadrant was a separate phase, starting from the southwest and going clockwise. 1800 doors, it is a huge community.
IslandWalk has a wonderful system of lakes (retention ponds): 30 lakes, 170 acres of water. The lakes mean that in addition to passerine (perching) birds, you can also observe swimmers, divers, and waders.
IslandWalk also has a wonderful system of trails and bridges for walking and observing.
There are actually 3 lake systems: southwest, southeast, and north. The 3 roads that go from the perimeter to town center (IslandWalk Blvd, Guadeloupe, and Whidbey) all go over fake bridges. The 27 real bridges in IslandWalk are all pedestrian; they also define the watery boundaries between lakes.
There are no bridges that support motor traffic - I'm sure this was a large cost savings. So if you're kayaking from Lake #1, you have to portage across Guadeloupe to get to the north lakes, or across IslandWalk Boulevard to get to the southeast lakes.
Here's IslandWalk from Google Earth. The lakes are numbered, and our house at 5836 Charlton Way, on the west bank of Lake #1, is shown by the yellow asterisk (*).
All the water from the entire 2 mile square bounded by Vanderbilt Beach Road, Collier Boulevard, Immokalee Road, and Logan Boulevard drains to the west through the IslandWalk lake system. This image from our most excellent Lakes Committee shows the water inflow and outflow locations, as well as the lake and bridge numbers.
I started counting birds after there were some statements to the effect that there were not near the number of birds frequenting our lakes as in the past. I had the thought that'd it would be a lot easier to guess at trends if we had some data, so I started counting birds whenever I walked in IslandWalk. When I am here (lately Dec 1 - May 1) I walk Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 3-8 miles.
A couple of years ago I decided that counting every time I walked was not the best way to get a consistent data set. I decided to count only on 2 walks, both of which walk the 4 diagonals of IslandWalk. 1 adds the east and west sides, the other adds the south and north sides.
The 1st I imaginatively named "X" (the bowtie or the butterfly would be a bit more catchy ;->). It is 5.41 miles. Here's what it looks like (from my iPhone walking app):
The 2nd I named ... "X2" (or the hourglass). It is 5.47 miles. Here it is:
Both of these walks go by all the lakes on one end/side, and go by ~1/3 of the lakes from both ends. I think these are about good as can be done to systematically cover all of IslandWalk.
I've only gone into this data once to try and draw a conclusion about our bird population. That was a couple of years ago when there was concern about the muscovy ducks. The data from 2016 to 2020 showed a slight decrease in muscovy duck numbers, and a slight increase in mottled duck (our brown mallard-like dabbling duck) numbers.
With regard to the question that got me started counting birds - do we have fewer birds than in the past? - my gut level would be that yes, there are fewer birds. We purchased our house in IslandWalk in spring 2009, so I have an additional 7 seasons of bird observations before I started counting. I would posit 2 possible reasons for a decrease:
- There are so many new developments, many of which have water features like (but nowhere near as nice as) IslandWalk. So there is more competition for the bird population.
- The Climate Crisis is changing migration patterns and times. Additionally, it was widely reported a few years ago that since 1970 we have lost 1/3 of the birds in North America.
I'm definitely going to do the 1st of an annual blog post: "Birding in IslandWalk, 2021-2022 Season".
If anyone else wants to be a bird-counting citizen scientist, I recommend the X and X2 walks for counting. That will give us the most consistent data set. I put the name of the walk (X or X2) in the Comments section of the eBird form.
[Updated 2022-03-08]
Lake #1 Birding
Earlier post with anecdotal bird watching on Lake #1.
[Created 2022-04-13]
Initial post of "Birdwatching in IslandWalk".
[Updated 2022-05-18]
IslandWalk Birds, 2021-2022 Season
This is the 1st annual report I posted, it contains ~10 years of accumulated anecdotes & theories re IW birds.
[Updated 2022-08-29]
IslandWalk Birds, 2020-2021 Season
[Updated 2022-08-31]
Cormorant Menace?
[Updated 2023-08-29]
IslandWalk Birds, 2022-2023 Season
[Updated 2024-11-15]
IslandWalk Birds, 2023-2024 Season
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