White-faced Ibis at La Chua

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

Okay, here’s one of those short birding reports that some of you asked for.

Four good birder-photographers from the mid-Atlantic region, Tom Johnson, Doug Gochfeld, Scott Whittle, and Samuel Paul Galick, found a White-faced Ibis at the end of the La Chua Trail on March 8th: “Studied and photographed at close range; immature bird with red eye, pink facial skin, and red-tinged legs; we saw no reasons to suspect that this was a hybrid with Glossy.”

The first Ruby-throated Hummingbirds of the spring have shown up in Alachua County. Ron Robinson and Bill Buckley saw one at Bill’s NW Gainesville residence on the 7th, and Mary and Samuel Ewing saw one in Newberry on the 8th.

You might enjoy competing in Audubon’s “2013 Great American Arctic Birding Challenge” this spring. The prizes are, as those crazy kids would say, totally lame, but details are here: http://ak.audubon.org/2013-great-american-arctic-birding-challenge

There’s an interesting debate/discussion about playback (including special guest appearance by David Sibley) at the American Birding Association blog. Be sure to read the comments for both sides of the story: http://blog.aba.org/2013/02/open-mic-rage-against-the-machines-the-case-against-pressing-play-to-tick.html#c6a00e5505da1178834017c374329bd970b