Friday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky, but…
Mike Manetz found two Gull-billed Terns at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the evening of the 13th. He wrote, “Both were adult birds in fresh plumage: upperwings clean pale blue-gray, tail slightly forked. Full black cap; bill all black, relatively short and blunt. Pair was flying in low circles over holding pond, seen well in scope.” This is either the seventh or the ninth occurrence of this species in Alachua County, depending on whether you believe David Johnston’s Christmas Bird Count sightings from 1966 and 1973 (I’m inclined not to). Mike found the terns while making a “forced march” around all three cells in search of shorebirds. He succeeded in finding 2 Semipalmated Sandpipers, as well as a Least and a Spotted, plus 35 Bobolinks.
The spring migration has been winding down for a couple of weeks, though American Redstarts are still passing through. But the thing about migration, the thing that makes it exciting, is this: You Never Know. Something unexpected could turn up at any time. Adam and Gina Kent were birdwatching from their SE Gainesville porch on the morning of the 13th when they saw a Blackburnian Warbler, only the third ever spotted here in spring migration. Adam got a picture: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26395968153/in/dateposted-public/
The Gull-billeds and the Blackburnian weren’t the only good birds seen on Friday the 13th. Jonathan Mays was southbound on US-441 at a little after nine when he saw a dark-form Short-tailed Hawk kettling with Turkey Vultures near Lake Wauberg. And Trina Anderson photographed a breeding-plumage Stilt Sandpiper along the La Chua Trail. She also saw 7 Semipalmated Sandpipers, a Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Spotted Sandpipers, 3 Black-necked Stilts, and 3 King Rails.
Imagine how much more Mike and Adam and Gina and Jonathan and Trina would have seen if it hadn’t been Friday the 13th!
A lot of female birders (not all) don’t like birding alone. It occurs to me that Barbara Muschlitz had a standing field trip for women, mostly birding friends of hers, who would meet on each Wednesday morning, confirming time and place by email ahead of time. It would be fairly easy to set up one or more Facebook groups where friends could do something like this, meeting once or twice weekly, and arranging time and place through Facebook. If you’d like to get out more, but don’t want to go by yourself, give it a try. If you’re like me – so far behind the curve that you can’t even see the curve anymore – and you’re not on Facebook, then you’ll have to use a paleolithic method of communication like email or telephone. But I’m sure arrangements can be made even under such primitive conditions.
Ron Robinson called my attention to an odd sight at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 6th. Two very young Common Gallinule chicks were following a parent bird around, begging, and it was pecking at them irritably, even seizing them in its bill and holding them underwater. Steve Nesbitt told me once that some birds are habitually good parents who successfully raise chicks to independence year after year, while others are poor parents whose young perish more often than not. I’m not betting any money on this bird.