It’s finally here, and man does it look good: https://www.amazon.com/Peterson-Sounds-Eastern-America-Guides/dp/0547905580/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494525209&sr=8-1&keywords=9780547905587 If you’ve ever wanted to be Mike Manetz, now’s your chance. I notice that Tom Webber of the Florida Museum of Natural History received special thanks on the acknowledgments pages.
Last year’s spring migration peaked April 15-23, which struck me as a little early. This year there were two peaks. The first came at about the time I’d expect, April 23-28, and under normal circumstances the warbler migration would have been largely finished after that. But this year a powerful front blew through on May 4/5, pushing a number of migrants eastward and bringing us a second peak that ran from May 5-8. This later peak included four species that we don’t often see in spring: Swainson’s Thrush, Bay-breasted Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and Black-throated Green Warbler. With the help of eBird and a few observers who emailed me directly I compiled a spreadsheet showing the dates and numbers of selected migrant passerines that came through Alachua County between April 15th and May 11th, and you can look at it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-AfPcnNxCF_F4G_F1JRNzgK8xJrUXth2DHd7yL_gqhw/edit?usp=sharing (Note the last two columns on the right, one showing the total number of individual migrants reported on a given day, and the other showing the number of species reported.)
At this point it’s likely that passerine migration is over, BUT … of the nine reports of Connecticut Warbler from Alachua County, six came on May 11th or later – in fact, three came after May 20th.
Steve Hofstetter has discovered that his NW Gainesville backyard is a birding hotspot. On the 7th he saw a male Bay-breasted Warbler there: “As it worked its way through a live oak, I was able to watch it for about 20 seconds. I could clearly make out the rusty sides, throat and cap. It made for a strong contract with the cream-colored nape. I could also make out the dark band through the eyes and strong white wing bars. Compared to what they look like in the fall, the contrast in colors make for a beautiful-looking bird and an easy ID. The color of the nape reminded me of a Bobolink.” On the following day he had another unusual visitor, a male Black-throated Green Warbler. As he was admiring it, he made his third remarkable observation in two days: “During this time I kept hearing this loud rattling chip note. I finally found the bird, it was a young Brown-headed Cowbird being fed by a Carolina Chickadee. It was a sad sight and no baby chickadees were anywhere to be found. Cowbirds usually parasitize open-nest species, but on occasion they lay in cavities (i.e., bluebirds, House Wrens, and chickadees). I think it is the first time I’ve seen one being raised by a chickadee. I heard this cowbird calling for over two hours with only temporary breaks (probably when it was being fed). I felt sorry for the chickadee.” I think this is the first such observation for Alachua County.
On the evening of the 7th Mike Manetz and I walked out Hatchet Creek – no longer a creek, but a series of puddles – to the north end of Newnans Lake. Once we got there and started walking east along the lakeshore we found a lot of weedy shallows but not much in the way of mud flats. There were only six shorebirds: 2 Leasts, 2 Lesser Yellowlegs, and 2 Spotted Sandpipers. Two days later Mike and I made another try, walking north from Palm Point along a narrow (sometimes nonexistent) beach almost to the old crew team dock at the end of East University Avenue. We didn’t do much better this time: we saw 22 Lesser Yellowlegs and 4 Spotted Sandpipers. Lloyd Davis had better luck on the 10th, making the long walk south from the Windsor boat ramp to Prairie Creek: he saw 13 White-rumped Sandpipers, 18 Stilt Sandpipers, 12 Spotted Sandpipers, 1 Long-billed Dowitcher (down from a high of 440 on April 21st), 20 Least Sandpipers, 20 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 5 Lesser Yellowlegs, 1 Killdeer, and 2 Black-necked Stilts. So thanks to Lloyd you know where to go, and thanks to me and Mike you know where not to go.
The Alachua Audubon field trip to Jacksonville on May 6th coincided with 50-degree temperatures and 30 mph winds. Consequently we had an uncomfortable and unproductive morning. However we tallied six species of swallows streaming north along the dunes, and Erin Kalinowski spotted a Common Eider sitting on the sand at the mouth of the St. Johns River, which Glenn Price was able to photograph as it was flying away: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/33792798553/in/dateposted-public/ On the same day in another part of Jacksonville, Kevin Dailey saw a flock of Eastern Kingbirds flying north over the St. Johns River, remarkably late for such a large migratory flock, but of a piece with the swallow flight we’d witnessed along the coast, all birds that had been pushed east by the front.
This Saturday morning, county biologist Michael Drummond will lead a walk at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve. Details here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/event/longleaf-flatwoods-reserve-clep/?instance_id=671