Jack and Mary Lynch of High Springs (of Calliope Hummingbird fame) have a Western Tanager visiting their yard. They’re opening their yard to visitors this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning (March 5-7) from sunrise to 10:30 a.m. Mary writes, “We are open to folks letting themselves in by the side gate as early as they wish. Please enter slowly because there is an active Bluebird box to the right as they enter the gate. Also, please, please stress the importance of not parking anywhere beyond our driveway or no one will see any birds or have any quiet because of the blasted dogs next door. Oh and our address now is 18841 NW 244th Street. High Springs is now part of the County 911 Fire and Rescue so they changed our street and house numbers to end confusion.” Again, do not park north of their driveway. South of the driveway is fine, and across the street is fine, but not north of the driveway because of the dogs.
A Winter Wren was discovered along O’Leno State Park’s River Trail last October, but no one went back to see it until Mike Manetz re-found it on February 10th. The bird was last seen on the 20th. On the 25th Doug Richard of Ocala went up in hopes of finding it. He didn’t, but he did manage to photograph one of the earliest Louisiana Waterthrushes ever recorded in Alachua County: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/25192295310/in/dateposted-public/
Lloyd Davis saw a Barn Swallow at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 25th, tying (or setting?) the early record for Alachua County. The locally-nesting swallows seem to be early arrivals. Martins arrive in January and February, and Barn Swallows and Northern Rough-winged Swallows arrive in early March.
Speaking of spring arrivals, the county’s first Chuck-will’s-widow of the spring was flushed by Andy Kratter in his SE Gainesville yard on the 29th, the first Swallow-tailed Kite was seen in SW Gainesville on the 2nd, and the first Indigo Bunting was seen by Ron Robinson on the 3rd. It’s time for the first Ruby-throated Hummingbirds to show up.
I ran into Roy Herrera at La Chua today and he told me that at Sweetwater Wetlands Park he’d watched a Limpkin work over a fallen log for twenty minutes, methodically probing into cracks with its bill. In my experience Limpkins eat snails and freshwater mussels, nothing else, so I couldn’t figure out what the bird had been doing. I looked up Limpkin in Birds of North America Online, and under Food Habits I found this (after lots of stuff about snails and mussels, of course): “Occasionally eats lizards, frogs, insects, crustaceans, and worms; may be especially useful when forced into suboptimal habitats during drought and flooding. Reported eating grasshoppers on lawns in drought. Five individuals observed in Sarasota Co., FL, in burned marsh adjacent to good snail habitat raising their wings to stir up masses of small ‘blind mosquitoes,’ then snapping at grasses where the insects alighted. Commonly eats rotten wood, usually before or after foraging on normal prey. One vagrant in Florida Keys fed on mash put out for domestic ducks.” Roy also mentioned that he has repeatedly seen one Limpkin sitting down in a particular spot near the boardwalk. Roy wonders if it may be on a nest; the area is partly hidden by grass, so he can’t tell for sure. In northern Florida, according to Birds of North America Online (again), Limpkins lay their eggs between late February through July, so it’s certainly possible that Roy’s bird is sitting on eggs.
Earlier this week Ron Robinson went walking on Sparrow Alley, where he saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk nab a Blue Jay and bear it down to the ground. The two birds struggled for a moment, and then a Bobcat leaped out from behind a tree and landed on both birds! In the confusion the Sharpie got away and the Blue Jay, still stunned, fluttered up into the low branches of a tree. Ron watched as the Bobcat climbed a neighboring tree, hopped over into the tree in which the Blue Jay was still trying to gather its wits, and then dropped straight down on the Blue Jay, driving it to the ground, then picking it up and trotting away with it.
Butterflies are slowly emerging. I saw a Black Swallowtail and a Monarch where Cross Creek empties into Orange Lake on the 18th, a Tiger Swallowtail in my NE Gainesville back yard on the 25th, and a second Black Swallowtail at La Chua on the 3rd. A few Cloudless Sulphurs are flying around, as well as a couple of Orange-barred Sulphurs straying north from South Florida.
The accessible part of the La Chua Trail has been extended, though you still can’t get all the way out to the observation tower. There was a bison at the water control structure today.
Dotty Robbins writes, “If you want to stay informed on water issues in our area, I suggest subscribing to Our Santa Fe River’s newsletter. It covers a range of topics–as you can see below. It’s free, and you can opt to receive it once a week–my preference. OSFR would like you to join, but you don’t have to, and they don’t pester you. It will keep you informed on local planned development and anything that affects rivers, springs, and aquifer. I really appreciate the efforts of folks who are willing to stand up and fight for our environment.” Here’s the link to Our Santa Fe River’s news site, and the link to “Subscribe to Our Newsletter” is at the bottom of the page: http://oursantaferiver.org/wp/news/
Sarah Brown, a biologist at Tall Timbers, writes, “Just wondering if anyone knows of a good birder that would like to do point counts for us from April-June on Osceola National Forest in Lake City for $16/hr. I haven’t gotten any good applicants and am getting a bit nervous I won’t find someone so if you happen know of anyone please let me know. Thanks!” If you want to do some birding in the pinewoods and get paid $16 per hour for it, contact Sarah at sbrown@ttrs.org