From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
Because he delights in putting the working man down, Bob Carroll is starting a monthly weekday-morning bird walk for retirees and other persons of leisure, beginning this week: “Will you please let people know about our Thursday Bird Walk coming up this week? We’ll meet at 8:00 AM at Bolen Bluff and spend a few hours searching for what I’m sure will be a migrant fallout. Afterwards, some of us will go to Blue Highway Pizza in Micanopy. Anyone planning on going to lunch should let me know so I can contact the restaurant and warn them about what’s going to happen to their lovely little place. They can email me at gatorbob23@yahoo.com or text me at (352) 2813616.”
An official Paynes Prairie announcement: “La Chua Trail [including Sparrow Alley] will be closed September 26th through October 9th for culvert removal and restoration. Heavy Equipment will be operated in the area. Visitors are requested to call the Paynes Prairie Ranger Station at (352) 466-3397 to verify that the trail has reopened prior to visiting.” You want to be careful around Heavy Equipment.
In warbler news, Mike Manetz had the fall’s only Golden-winged Warbler at Poe Springs on the 12th – we weren’t able to relocate it on the field trip – and Adam Kent spotted a Cerulean Warbler in his SE Gainesville yard on the 15th.
A dark-morph Short-tailed Hawk spending the summer around La Chua has been seen twice lately, on the 10th by Adam Zions and on the 14th by the lucky birders who saw the Gray Kingbird (not relocated, alas).
Those lucky birders also saw an Alder Flycatcher. I have now tried for those Alders on Sparrow Alley four times, plus Cones Dike once and Barr Hammock once. I’ve seen flycatchers fitting that general description each time, but without a vocalization they’re essentially unidentifiable, and either they clam up when I’m around or else I’ve gone deaf. It’s making me peevish.
Adam Zions saw both a Bank Swallow and a Cliff Swallow over La Chua on the 13th. Both are tough birds to get in Alachua County, yet when you see one it’s not that unusual to see the other.
In a recent birding report I mentioned the Common Nighthawk migration, as witnessed by local birders on the 7th, 8th, and 9th. On the 10th the Florida Keys Hawkwatch counted 4,275 nighthawks passing over, and captured several dozen on video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVAgKjc39u4 I notice that they have a more regular flight style in migration; from a distance I might mistake them for Laughing Gulls.
Here’s something unexpected, to me anyway. I know that hawks and falcons prey on migrant birds, but I didn’t know that gulls do it too: http://www.anythinglarus.com/2014/09/ring-billeds-preying-on-migrating.html
Remember: Mangrove Cuckoo presentation at the Millhopper Library on Wednesday night at 6:30, fall migration count on Saturday, Cedar Key boat trip on Sunday. Details here (click on the + symbol for more information): https://alachuaaudubon.org/classes-field-trips/