From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
When I wasn’t looking, Short-tailed Hawk became the most common bird in Alachua County. We’ve had five sightings in a little more than three weeks: Matt Bruce saw one near Kanapaha Gardens on May 27th, John Martin saw one near Hunters Crossing on June 8th, Peter Polshek saw one at Lake Alice on the 12th, Lloyd Davis and Will Sexton saw one in Windsor on the 13th, and Bob Carroll saw one over Hitchcock’s in Alachua on the 17th. All were dark morphs, but even if the first three involved a single wide-ranging bird, I can’t believe it also went to Windsor and then Alachua, so I think there are at least three birds involved, maybe more. Also keep in mind that there were three sightings of dark morph Short-taileds in April. What it comes down to is this: Short-tailed Hawk = trash bird.
Last Sunday Bob Carroll wrote, “I went to Sweetwater Wetlands Park to look for the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. There were plenty of Black-crowned Night-Herons, but none of their Yellow-crowned cousins. Nonetheless, it proved to be a good day. Besides the Least Bitterns, Purple Gallinules, Limpkins, etc., I saw a King Rail and a Belted Kingfisher. Both were on the southern edge near the two covered benches. The kingfisher flew the length of the canal in front of the benches, hunting along the opposite bank. He caught a small fish, perched in the southwest corner of the property, and settled in for lunch.” That’s the only kingfisher recorded during the June Challenge this year. So far, anyway – we might get some early-returning migrants at the end of the month. At any rate, it might be worth checking SWP this weekend.
Last Saturday’s field trip to look at the Burrowing Owls of Watermelon Pond was a success. Not only did 37 people turn out – https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/18869341866/in/dateposted-public/ – but a minimum of 12 Burrowing Owls were seen, half of which were recently-fledged young: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/18895362865/in/dateposted-public/
Eastern Kingbirds are resident in the same area as the Burrowing Owls, and Michael Drummond got this (typically) excellent photo of one: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/18895903775/in/dateposted-public/
Several of us went to the Newberry Cemetery after the Burrowing Owl trip in search of White-winged Dove and Northern Flicker. No luck on the doves, but we found the flickers nesting right next door, in front of the elementary school: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/18869704466/
Chuck-will’s-widow isn’t always easy to find, but Peter Polshek was canny enough to consult A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida (p. 104-05), and on the 11th he wrote, “I saw 4 Chucks along the first mile of Fish Camp Road off County Road 325 last evening about 8:45-9:15.” Fish Camp Road is one and a half miles south of the Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve parking corral.
The Common Loon found by Chris Cattau at Newnans Lake on the 12th was seen again by Peter Polshek on the 13th. Mike Manetz and I decided to maximize our chances of seeing the loon by kayaking across the northern part of the lake. By my calculation, we paddled between seven and eight miles, a fair bit of that against the wind. Did we see the loon? Do you really have to ask? Of course not. The only even slightly interesting bird we saw was a Laughing Gull. Oddly, we didn’t see or hear a single Limpkin.
Ron Robinson advises, “While searching (unsuccessfully) all around the county today for Wood Ducks, I did stumble on to a group of three Mottled Ducks in the retention pond at the corner of NW 24th Boulevard and NW 53rd Avenue near Rainbow Lakes subdivision. It is on the South west corner on the intersection. I thought it might save some Challengers the walk out to the middle of the Prairie. The water level was very low, I missed them on my first scan, they were hiding in some Torpedo Grass.”
Gainesville’s doughty band of amateur naturalists is losing two important members this summer. Kathy Malone, the guiding spirit behind the local chapter of the North American Butterfly Association and an excellent photographer, moved to Tennessee earlier this month; and in fact the NABA chapter that she founded has now disbanded. And Katherine Edison, one of our best photographers and bloggers, is moving to Athens, Georgia, at the end of the summer. Katherine is making a “farewell tour” of her favorite Gainesville natural areas this month and writing about them in her blog. I think this link will take you to the first one in the “30 Days in June” series (but remember you have to scroll down): http://earthteachme.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2015-06-05T10:36:00-04:00&max-results=12&start=8&by-date=false
An appropriations bill that just passed the House of Representatives will prevent enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treatment Act of 1918, and Congress needs to hear from you about that. The American Birding Association explains it very well: http://blog.aba.org/2015/06/what-birders-should-know-about-the-migratory-bird-treaty-act-threat.html Cindy Boyd told me that someone knocked down the Chimney Swift roost/nesting site at Creekside Mall. I don’t know whether birds were nesting in it at the time, but if this bill passes the Senate and gets signed into law, it wouldn’t matter whether birds were nesting in it or not. Nesting birds wouldn’t be protected anywhere.