From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
After seeing three Burrowing Owls at Watermelon Pond this morning (with 50 of my closest friends), Matt O’Sullivan and I drove up to the Newberry cemetery in hopes of seeing Northern Flicker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, and White-winged Dove. The doves were cooperative, but no one had seen a pewee there recently. The flickers had been seen in the past few days, so we stuck around for about an hour, hoping they’d show up, but eventually we decided to leave. We passed Bob Carroll standing by the cemetery fence – he’d just added Common Ground-Dove to his June Challenge list and gave us a thumbs-up – and headed toward home. At about that time, Bob heard a flicker call, so he played a tape and four flickers (!) flew into trees right above his head. He could still see my car, and he waved at us, but we didn’t see him. All that’s necessary for a good bird to show up is for me to leave.
Or for me not to be there in the first place. Bob just called about five minutes ago to tell me that a Short-tailed Hawk was soaring over Possum Creek Park on the corner of NW 43rd Street and NW 53rd Avenue. Someone – Maralee Joos? – mentioned that they’d seen an all-dark hawk on the ground near the corner of 53rd and NW 34th Street in the past week. Maybe they’re nesting around there. Anyway, if you need Short-tailed for your June Challenge list – and most of us do – that’s the place to hang out.