March 14th is Pi Day because 3.14. I was unaware of this until yesterday. Now listen, when I was a-comin’ up we didn’t have holidays about math. Math was math, and it stayed in the classroom where it belonged. If we needed a holiday, we found a handy president. Andy Jackson was born on March 15th, for instance, and Jimmy Madison on March 16th. Celebrate them if you like, but leave the math alone. That’s my counsel if you want it, Leave The Math Alone. I’ve lived my life by that creed, and I’ve done all right except for the poverty and the stupidity.
Adam Zions relocated the Bell’s Vireo at Sparrow Alley on the 12th. It was on a side trail off the power line cut. As you walk out the power lines, look for lanes cut to your left. There’s one that continues as a trail beyond the black plastic silt fences. Follow that one until you find a largish patch of tall reddish grass (broom sedge). This is also the area where Bryan Tarbox and I heard a call on the 8th that we suspected to be the vireo. Mike Manetz supplied me with a couple samples of calls, the sort of thing you should listen for as you walk around out there: http://www.xeno-canto.org/304431 and http://www.xeno-canto.org/34622
Loonacy is underway. Andy Kratter started doing his annual spring-migrant loon watches on the 10th, and saw his first of the season – two of them – passing over on the 13th. He solicits your loon sightings: “It’s that time of year again when you should be looking up between 8 and 10 AM to watch for loons as they migrate over Alachua County. I had my first this morning, a pair at 8:57 a.m. For the past 12 years I have been counting Common Loons as they migrate between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. The migration is compressed in both time and space: 95% of the birds pass over Gainesville from 50-120 mins after sunrise, between 21 March and 12 April, almost all are heading ENE to NE between Paynes Prairie and north Gainesville. To help figure out the extent of this migration, it would be great if others want to help. It is best to choose spots with an open view of the western sky. I keep track with pen and paper, and record time, number of loons in group, and direction of movement. If seen well, the birds can also be aged (adult or non-adult). Accurate timing and flock size is important so we can avoid double counting. The loons fly fast (ca. 50 mph) and often quite high in loose flocks (from 1-35 birds). Watch for ‘bowling pins with wings’ (to quote Ron Robinson). I watch from Pine Grove/Evergreen Cemetery in SE Gainesville, and scan with binoculars from south to north across the western sky to pick up loons flying at a distance. Send me your counts with data and your exact location. I also troll eBird, but make sure you record the data (here is an example of one of my checklists: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S22598125 ). It will be interesting to see how this year’s El Niño conditions affect the migration. Please email or message me on Facebook if you want any more information or want to participate in any way. Andy Kratter kratter@flmnh.ufl.edu ”
I’m noticing dogwoods coming into bloom. Additional signs of spring:
Jonathan Mays spotted the season’s first Chimney Swift on the 8th, by twelve days a new early record for the county: “singleton flyover, twittering and in with Tree Swallows.” The Vaux’s Swifts roosting at Dauer Hall on the UF campus were reported during the last week of February: 14 birds on the 22nd, then one each on the 23rd and 24th. Vaux’s has been recorded here as late as April 7th, so over the next few weeks any silent swifts should probably be submitted to eBird as “Chimney/Vaux’s Swift.” Of course you don’t have to do that if you can recognize vocalizing birds as one species or another.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, on the other hand, were late this year: the first of the season usually arrive during the first few days of March, but this year’s first were reported on the 11th by a Wild Birds Unlimited customer and on the 12th by Mike Manetz in NW Gainesville and Jonathan Mays in SE Gainesville.
Deena Mickelson saw the spring’s first Yellow-throated Vireo at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve on the 1st.
Cynthia Lukyanenko reported a pair of American Kestrels nesting at the Gainesville airport on the 6th, one of them already sitting on a nest “in the glass enclosure of one of the outdoor lights.” Tom Tompkins tells me that they’ve been nesting at the airport for at least three or four years. Otherwise, as far as I know, this is the first nesting of American Kestrel within the Gainesville city limits since Charles Doe reported one at P.K. Yonge School (now Norman Hall at UF) in July 1939.
On the 12th, I heard my yard’s Red-headed Woodpecker making the queeah call, which it uses only during spring and summer. It’s been chuckling all winter, but this was the first time I heard the breeding-season call.
Bubba Scales says that the American Goldfinches are returning to backyard feeders after two or three weeks eating wild foods. I still have only two in my NE Gainesville yard, but he thinks that will change within the week. Watch for Pine Siskins among the goldfinches. Bubba set a video camera in Tom Hoctor’s NW Gainesville yard and got footage of several siskins, a couple of goldfinches, and a Yellow-rumped Warbler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za8QwOuMvpk&feature=youtu.be
The Black-chinned Hummingbird is still at the Ewings’ place as of this morning.
This is sort of weird. I put up my latest blog post yesterday: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/778/flowering-now-wild-plums/ This morning I received notice of a “pingback” and when I visited the linked web address I found that someone had posted my blog post on their own site and then added a couple of stock photos: https://davgilks.wordpress.com/2016/03/14/flowering-now-wild-plums-field-guide/ Why would they do that? It must be all the money involved, yeah, that’s got to be it.