Fall migration has been weird this year. According to eBird, there were only four sightings of Bay-breasted Warbler, all on the 9th and 10th, and only four sightings of Black-throated Green, three of those on the 8th and 9th. Those are both relatively uncommon birds, though. What about Tennessee Warbler, which is usually fairly common? A handful of sightings up to the 9th, but then nothing until one on the 18th. All of these species are usually findable from the 10th through the 20th. Other fall migrants are still around – Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Magnolia Warbler, Yellow-billed Cuckoo – and there are plenty of American Redstarts. But the usual peak of migration, the week around October 15th, was pretty dead in terms of variety and numbers. Some people are expecting Friday’s cold front to bring us one more flight of neotropical migrants, but I think it’s more likely to deliver millions of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Hope I’m wrong.
The period of time between mid-October and the beginning of December is often a good one for western strays in Alachua County. That seems to be holding true this year. Travis Mitchell reported a Vermilion Flycatcher on the University of Florida campus on the 20th. From SW 34th Street go east on Hull Road past the museums and the Performing Arts Center, past Natural Area Drive, and take the next right onto IFAS Research Drive (according to Google Maps). There’s parking down there, but unless you have a UF decal you’re not safe from a ticket till after 4:00 (or on weekends). Mike Manetz went looking for the bird on the afternoon it was found: “The orchard compound is about a city block square. Turning right off Hull we drove along the eastern side, which is mainly a stunted peach orchard. We parked across the road at the SE corner and walked/stopped/watched along this side for about 45 minutes (parking no problem on grassy shoulder, very little traffic). At one point a couple of student/employee types came by and were excited about the Vermilion. One said the photo looked like it was taken in the peach area we were watching. After about 45 minutes we walked to Hull Rd and worked along the north fence line (along Hull), which had a large block of mature citrus, and then planted pine. We then walked back and checked the east side again and then worked along the southern fence line before giving up. We also checked the pond at the Natural Area Teaching Lab.” It may just be passing through, but Vermilions often stick around all winter.
Another frequent western stray during late fall is the Dickcissel, and on the evening of the 20th Jonathan Mays found one of these along the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail “just over 1 mile east of the La Chua trailhead. Once you hit the ‘2mi.’ marker on the trail, travel another 100m around small curve to where field opens up on both sides of trail.” I think that’s the 38th for Alachua County. Half of those came in the last ten years; six were identified solely by the distinctive call-note from migrants passing over in the pre-dawn hours.
Mike Manetz found a Swainson’s Warbler at Palm Point on the 20th. He called John Hintermister right away, but he and John weren’t able to relocate it. Still, here’s where Mike saw it: from the parking lot, walk toward the Point, and when the old boat ramp is directly to your right, look to your left. That’s where it was. There’s only been one later sighting in the county’s history, a bird that Andy Kratter saw at Bolen Bluff on 21 October 2004.
Red-breasted Nuthatches are still showing up. If you remember, Ryan Terrill heard the season’s first on the 9th, right after Hurricane Matthew. The next one visited Dick and Patty Bartlett’s SE Gainesville feeder on the 14th. And this morning Irina Goodwin photographed a third along the La Chua Trail, in the brushy vegetation at the water control structure: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/30432584546/in/dateposted-public/
Trina Anderson got a photo of the Wilson’s Warbler at Bolen Bluff on the 17th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/46902575@N06/29760682924/in/datetaken-public/ Also at Bolen Bluff, Andy Kratter found a Nashville Warbler on the 16th. The Wilson’s was still there on the 21st, but the Nashville appears to have been a one-day wonder.
Stefan Rayer has noticed flocks of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks flying from the northwest to the southeast just after sunset. He figures that they’re heading to Paynes Prairie. But where in the northwest would such flocks be coming from? Does anyone have a clue? If you do, please let me know.
Stefan also saw the county’s first American Robin of the fall in his NW Gainesville yard on the 12th. Andy Kratter saw one too, flying over his SE Gainesville home on the 18th. I don’t usually expect to see the first migrants until late October or early November.
Ten years ago, in the second edition of A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida, Mike Manetz and I had this to say about Loggerhead Shrikes: “Fairly common resident often found on utility wires and fencelines, especially barbed wire, in open rural areas and around large tracts of close-cropped grass such as schoolyards and ballfields. Can also be found perched in the open along the La Chua Trail and the Cones Dike Trail.” If we were writing now, we’d have to call it “Uncommon and declining.” In the 1990s and early 2000s I used to see them regularly in the open stretch near Alachua Sink; my last sighting there was February 16, 2008, when I saw a pair building a nest along Sparrow Alley. Now I think La Chua is too overgrown for them. But they’ve disappeared from other places as well. Looking at eBird, I see 21 reports over the past two months, but they involve only a handful of locations: Watermelon Pond, Depot Park, Jonesville County Park, Cellon Creek Boulevard, Gainesville Regional Airport, a few more. A large percentage of the population used to persist in marginal habitat around the edge of the city, but those birds seem to be disappearing, and it’s not common anywhere. Put them in eBird when you see them; let’s track the decline as best we can.
Cornell is offering a learn-at-your-own-pace course in “Ornithology: Comprehensive Bird Biology” using their own textbook and a lot of online materials. Check it out, and view a sample lesson, by clicking here.