From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
John Hintermister just called (8:56 a.m.) to report an American Avocet at the Hague Dairy. The bird is best seen from NW 59th Drive, the road that runs north and south along the eastern edge of the dairy property. From the dairy’s back entrance (on 59th) go north to the powerlines, and the avocet is in a flooded field there. Good luck!
The visitor center at Paynes Prairie will close for remodeling on August 3rd and will remain closed until some time in January, though a temporary office trailer will be set up in the visitor center parking lot. If you’re looking for a copy of A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida, you can buy one there at the visitor center before it closes – or, if you live in Gainesville, you can pick up a copy at Wild Birds Unlimited, next door to The Flying Biscuit. Everybody needs one, it’s been voted The Great American Novel even though it isn’t a novel, which should give you some idea of how good it is!
Bookmark this page: some of you may not know that Mike Manetz is a great songwriter who once made a living as a bass player. He’s been posting some of his music on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/manetzma It’s hard to choose among so many terrific songs, but I’d particularly recommend “My Baby Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” (just because, as a former English major, I’m impressed with the rhyme scheme – every other line ends in “-ore”), “Clouds and Silver Linings,” which is about a father and son, and the moving “Goin’ Back to Kentucky.” They’re all good, really. Bookmark the page, as I said. Give them a listen.
As the kids would say, Awesome! This is Michigan, June 2011: https://www.facebook.com/BobAnderson23/videos/2675341286076/
Here’s something not to do: take a selfie with a rattlesnake: http://www.10news.com/news/mans-ordeal-stirs-debate-on-cost-of-treating-rattlesnake-bites My daughter comments, “This explains why peanut cans have to display a label that says, ‘Warning! Contains peanuts!'”
My latest Gainesville Sun blog deals with the Seahorse Key nest desertion and suggests a possible solution to the mystery, but you’ll have to read both Part One and Part Two.