From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
Remember: Native Plant Sale at Morningside Nature Center this Friday and Saturday. Details here.
Marie Zeglen wrote this morning to tell me about a bird that she and a friend had seen along the La Chua Trail on Sunday: “There was one bird that my out of town friend thought she knew but I wasn’t sure. It was a warbler – bright white eye ring, grayish head, little more olive towards top of head, back definitely olive. Yellow throat (medium yellow not as bright as a yellow throated), yellow breast. I thought I saw a bit of a little paler yellow or even whitish look far underneath the breast, not on rump. No wingbars. My friend thought it was a Nashville but I didn’t get quite good enough a look to confirm. We saw this bird past the water pumps on the main trail – maybe 400 feet – in the small trees on the right. No picture, sorry.” It did sound to me like a Nashville Warbler, so Greg McDermott and I walked out La Chua to the area described by Marie and looked around. We found plenty of Common Yellowthroats and Yellow and Prairie Warblers, nothing that looked like a Nashville. But this weather may well keep it from migrating for the next couple of days, so it would be worth going out there and taking a look. There have been only about twenty Nashville Warbler sightings here over the years.
Greg and I also saw some swallows flying around the first part of the trail. The light rain made flying conditions less than ideal, and as we returned past the little sinkhole along the first part of the old trail (i.e., not the boardwalk) we found 26 Barn Swallows and one Bank Swallow perched on the vegetation there, as well as three Soras walking around below them (Marie had seen seven Soras there on Sunday).
Now listen. Have you taken two minutes to complete your Alachua Audubon survey yet? Don’t make me pull this car over! https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WWNFTVV