From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
AN IMPORTANT REMINDER for eBirders: Use the “Sweetwater Wetlands Park” hotspot when you’re eBirding your sightings there, otherwise they won’t be added to the park’s eBird database. Lots of SWP sightings are being referred to Sweetwater Preserve or the former Sweetwater Branch, which are not the same thing.
Here’s how you go about it:
1. When you click on “Submit Observations” in the menu, you’re taken to a page headed, “Where did you bird?”
2. Halfway down the page is the “Find it on a map” option, and you should enter “Alachua” into the search box there.
3. One of the choices presented is, “Alachua, Florida, United States (US).” Click on that, and you’ll get a map of Alachua County with several red and blue teardrops on it.
4. In the upper left hand corner is a scale. Click on the plus sign (“+”) two times.
5. About an inch below the word “Gainesville” you’ll see “331” with a circle around it. Just overlapping that 331 is a red teardrop with a flame in it (flame means a hot-spot! get it?). Click on that red teardrop, and “Sweetwater Wetlands Park” ought to appear in a yellow rectangle to the right.
6. Then click “Continue” and … um, continue.
This weekend’s eBird reports from Sweetwater Wetland Parks showed no migrant shorebirds remaining. Which is actually good news, because we won’t spend the first week of The June Challenge with our fingers crossed, hoping they stay put until Saturday.
Matt Bruce saw a Short-tailed Hawk at his place near Kanapaha Botanical Gardens on the 27th. He wrote, “Dark morph. From my horse pasture I watched as the hawk circled overhead, hovered in place, and finally plunged into the treetops. It emerged with nothing to show for its efforts and continued to circle around in a kite-like fashion until it was out of view.”
On the 28th Frank Goodwin reported some good birds from from La Chua: “In case this hasn’t been reported yet, there is a Least Bittern nest visible from the La Chua observation platform. Looking southwest from the platform toward the northeastern edge of the willow grove, the nest is at the base of a tangle of rushes (cattails, perhaps?) and other foliage, thus about 50-75 yards from the platform. Irina and I counted three fledglings this morning, one of which is already strong and bold enough to clamber along the crest of the foliage for a vista of the brave new world. The parents are foraging conspicuously throughout the vicinity, so if the fledglings aren’t immediately visible, one can just wait for the parents to fly in to deliver food. There’s actually a second nest, as well (we saw a second set of parents descend into it), but that one is further south, deeper in the rushes on the southern side of that same willow grove. There are also at least four different female Black-necked Stilts all sitting atop nests on the mud flats. And four Roseate Spoonbills, too.”
Here’s something for you county listers. I’m always curious to know what species other birders have seen in the county that I haven’t and vice-versa. Mike Manetz and I, for instance, are tied with 318 species each for Alachua County, but our lists aren’t identical. Mike has seen five species I haven’t: Red Knot, Broad-billed Hummingbird, Olive-sided Flycatcher, Bell’s Vireo, and Warbling Vireo. Likewise I’ve seen five species Mike hasn’t: American Oystercatcher, Pomarine Jaeger, Philadelphia Vireo, Connecticut Warbler, and Black-throated Gray Warbler. If you want to compare your Alachua County list with that of other birders, go to this page, type your name into the cell in Row 1, and then start putting 1’s next to every species you’ve seen in the county. The checklist will automatically tally them for you. Here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1sVSSm0cEbsRkpGOMGvSlKMrvQp2KJ78iXJeU5kidyY4/edit?usp=sharing
And here’s something else (because we birders are a generous bunch!). Phil Laipis writes, “John Hintermister keeps asking me why my Garmin GPSr does not show county lines. I finally gave up, and figured out how to do it. So I thought maybe there are other birders out there who would find this useful, and wrote a brief ‘how to’ file. It will also work on your hiking GPS, if that interests you. I don’t use my smart phone because they don’t work in some of the places I NEED a GPS, like northern New Hampshire and Maine, Mount Hood in Oregon, Lower Suwanee, etc. So here’s the file.” https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4E7iNkfaDyUMTJaaEQyY1Q2dWZ1WWdHSXRhVWZsd2VUaFAw/view?usp=sharing
Remember, if you’d like to get a head start on The June Challenge, meet me in the parking corral at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve on County Road 325 at 6:15 on Monday morning. Even if you’ve got to be at work at 8:00, it’s a great way to start the day!