Monday, December 23, 2019
Spreading Christmas Joy to all in Rose Hill The Christmas caroling event in Rose Hill was such a great success! Thanks to all that participated! Thank you to Oak Terrace for letting Santa come visit!
Wing Nuts Present the Rose Hill Christmas Bird Count On December 17th a small but determined group of Rose Hill’s ‘Wingnuts’ members participated in the annual National Audubon Christmas Bird Count. This census is taken in late December or early January as bird populations are stable at this time of year with minimal migration taking place. We covered both the North and South sides of Rose Hill Plantation and incorporated count data from several feeder watchers.
Highlights included a pair of adult Bald Eagles flying over Hidden Lake and several Pileated Woodpeckers in Bill Baker park. The star of the show however was a Bullock’s Oriole seen and identified by Mindy Cawley at her feeders. This is a west coast species which at this time of year should be wintering in central or southern Mexico. How it got here is anyone’s guess but even the large Bird Club over at Sun City was impressed and had never seen one before. This bird is something like a Baltimore Oriole that we often see here in Springtime but with slightly different plumage. In all we counted 294 birds of 41 species thanks to Rose Hill’s diverse ecology. As all the counts are done within 15 mile diameter circles (there are over 2500 of them counting data throughout the Americas) our numbers get added into Sun City’s along with other neighboring communities. This was the National Audubon Society’s 119th consecutive Christmas Bird Count, one of the largest citizen science projects. For more information, including the details from the Rose Hill count or of the Oriole, contact kevinfbrady@outlook.com.
POA Office Holiday Hours The POA office will be closed in observance of the Holidays as follows: ●December 24th and December 25th. ●December 31st and January 1st.