It is May and it is pouring down rain! It must be time for the annual Akridge - Save the Bay Golf Tournament at Queenstown Harbor Golf Course in Maryland.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation started the tournament 4 years ago to generate funding for their mission of “Saving the Bay,” the Chesapeake Bay that is. Now, 4 years later they have generated nearly $500,000 to support their work, which includes research, education, restoration and lobbying efforts on behalf of the Bay. A second focus of the event is to show case what properly managed golf courses can do in regard to environmental stewardship and in particular to show case efforts being made by golf to protect and restore the Bay.
Queenstown Harbor is a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary (Audubon International) and is comprised of 2 eighteen hole courses that are on the banks of the Chester River and the Chesapeake Bay. Queenstown Harbor is owned and managed by the Brick Companies, a company that not only prides themselves in managing environmentally friendly golf courses, but that imbeds environmental stewardship into the fabric of the entire company.
My focus this year aside from just attending the tournament and enjoying the company of all that attended, was to conduct a bird survey while the tournament was being played. I started out in the rain (as usual) but by mid-afternoon the sun was shining and the birds were flying.
I started my survey at the same time the 200 or so golfers headed for their first tee and I continued my survey for about 5 hours, coming in at about the same time the final foursome was heading for the 19th hole.
All in all it was a good day. All told, I tallied 47 species of birds on the 2 courses during the tournament. This included a Bald Eagle, including sighting the nest that it is using, which is also located on the course property. I think if the day hadn’t started out so soggy and gloomy, I would have ticked off several additional species, particularly some of the wood warbler species, which I’m sure frequent the large stands of hardwoods scattered around the course.
All in all, it was a good day for golf, a good day for raising money for the Chesapeake Bay and a good day for birding at Queenstown Harbor.
TOTAL BIRD LIST FOR THE DAY
Mallard 3
Great Blue Heron 4
Green Heron 2
Black Vulture 2
Turkey Vulture 10
Osprey 7
Bald Eagle 1
Red-tailed Hawk 2
Herring Gull 2
Rock Pigeon 2
Mourning Dove 4
Belted Kingfisher 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 1
Downy Woodpecker 2
Eastern Phoebe 2
Great Crested Flycatcher 1
Eastern Kingbird 2
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Blue Jay 2
American Crow 12
Fish Crow 2
Purple Martin 20
Tree Swallow 50
Barn Swallow 15
Tufted Titmouse 2
Carolina Wren 1
House Wren 1
Eastern Bluebird 1
American Robin 14
Northern Mockingbird 6
European Starling 18
Cedar Waxwing 8
Nashville Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Chipping Sparrow 2
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 2
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 1
Red-winged Blackbird 26
Common Grackle 16
Common Grackle 22
Brown-headed Cowbird 2
Orchard Oriole 1
Baltimore oriole 2
American Goldfinch 3
House Sparrow 19
1 comments:
Thanks for this awesome article on Golf and the nature of it. Golf is one of my favorite sports to play and I played Golf Courses in Las Vegas, where I learned most of my knowledge on the sport. I think many should go to Las Vegas for Golf because it is truly a great scene to play in and you feel at home as well.
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