From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
(After nearly two weeks without home internet access, AT&T got us back online yesterday afternoon. So … Hi! I’ve missed you!)
We’re in the midst of a large southward movement of Franklin’s Gulls along the Atlantic Coast. Most of those sighted in Florida have been on the beaches, but a few have been photographed in the St. Johns River as far south as Green Cove Springs. On the morning of the 15th Andy Kratter saw three gulls over Newnans Lake, but the morning glare was too strong for identification. Several of us convened at Palm Point that afternoon in hopes of relocating these birds, but we had no luck. We saw up to 25 Ring-billed Gulls, but none of them could have been mistaken for a Franklin’s Gull. Today around lunchtime Peter Polshek and I were back, but we had no better luck: a few Ring-billed Gulls, a few Forster’s Terns, some scaup and Buffleheads, one Dunlin, and one breeding-plumage Common Loon. Over the years we’ve had six occurrences of Franklin’s Gull in Alachua County, all of them at Newnans Lake. Three have been in May-June (here’s one), the others in late November and December (29 Nov 1998, 18-19 Nov 2000, and 17-19 Dec 2006), so keep an eye out when you’re birding around one of the big lakes during the next month. You can read more about this season’s “Franklin’s Gull Fallout” here: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/frgu2015/
There have been two good birds at the Hague Dairy for a couple of weeks. Alachua Audubon looked through the few cowbirds present during its field trip there on the 7th, but missed the Bronzed Cowbird found on the 30th by Steven Goodman and still present on the 13th, when Steven relocated it and also found a Western Kingbird! Both birds are still present today. Three of Lloyd Davis’s photos of the Western Kingbird, taken this morning, are here. A photo of the Bronzed Cowbird taken on the 14th by Matt O’Sullivan is here, while one taken on the same date by John Martin is here (look just left of the starling).
There are still a few Summer Tanagers hanging around, though at this stage it’s anybody’s guess whether they’re late migrants or wintering birds. Sam Ewing heard one calling in his NW Gainesville neighborhood on the 12th and 13th but not since then, so it may have been a late migrant. Adam and Gina Kent, who hosted four Summer Tanagers a couple of winters ago, have had at least one visiting their place in SE Gainesville since the 1st, and this morning they saw three, which are likely to be wintering birds.
It’s an interesting time of year. There’s a Mountain Bluebird at Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida. If a bird like that can turn up in Florida, almost anything can. There are all kinds of strays, vagrants, and wanderers out there, many, many more than we know about. Get out there and see what you find.