From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
Join Alachua Audubon on Wednesday evening for Dr. Katie Sieving’s presentation, “Cracking the Anti-Predator Code of Tufted Titmice.” Dr. Sieving, a professor in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, has been studying the vocalizations of chickadees and titmice for years. They’re highly social birds with exceptional vocal complexity. “Capable of encoding 2/3 of the information that the English language can, the sophisticated information encoded in parid calls is used by numerous species to avoid danger and enhance survival. Dr. Sieving will discuss how we decode meaning in these calls and how we are beginning to map landscapes of animal information.” We’ll meet at the Millhopper Branch Library, 3145 NW 43rd Street. A preliminary social “hour” begins at 6:30 with the talk following at 7:00.
The timing of migration at Cedar Key has been frustrating this week. As described here, the Third Thursday Birding Club pretty much struck out on the 16th with only three or four warbler species. But one day later Pat Burns and Dale Henderson engaged in a little competition during which Pat found 17 warbler species and Dale 15. No matter, we’d try again on the 19th, during the Alachua Audubon field trip. And the 19th started out fairly well, with a Peregrine Falcon circling over Shell Mound and a light-morph Short-tailed Hawk hanging over our heads for thirty seconds at Black Point Swamp. But that used up all our luck, because we didn’t find any migrants except for a single Prairie Warbler and in fact saw few birds of any sort. Several people had already gotten bored and headed home when we called it a day at 1:00 … and of course later that afternoon Pat Burns posted to Birdbrains, “This afternoon we had wind, rain, flooding and birds. I could hear Indigo Buntings, so I visited the State Museum, cemetery and Trestle Trail. Yellow-billed Cuckoo 2, Eastern Wood-Pewee 1, Veery 2, Wood Thrush 8, Gray Catbird in flocks, Yellow-throated Vireo 1, Prairie Warbler 3, Black-and-white Warbler 5, American Redstart 1, Prothonotary Warbler 1, Ovenbird 2, Northern Waterthrush 5, Hooded Warbler 3, Summer Tanager 1, Scarlet Tanager 1, Rose-breasted Grosbeak 15, Blue Grosbeak 5, Indigo Bunting 60+, Orchard Oriole 7, Baltimore Oriole 5.” Bob Carroll decided to drive out there today, and this morning he sent me an email, reporting, “Dude, it’s hopping! Black-throated Green, Blackpoll, Tennessee, Yellow, Indigo Bunting. Flying in as I type. Yay!” And this afternoon I saw a report from Citrus Audubon Society, who visited Cedar Key this morning and had some great birding, including everything mentioned by Pat and Bob as well as two species we don’t often see there in spring, Chestnut-sided and Cerulean Warblers.
Back here in Alachua County, things have mostly been a little tamer, as is normal; inland sites always have a reduced spring migration compared to the coast. But there have been a few exceptions. It’s been a great week for uncommon raptors. On the 18th Dean and Sam Ewing were driving east on University Avenue near Main Street they spotted a Short-tailed Hawk overhead. Sam got a photo, and while they were standing there a Broad-winged Hawk also flew over. Sam didn’t get a picture, but that was okay, because when they got to Powers Park he was able to photograph another Broad-winged Hawk! Steve Hofstetter reports that a third Broad-winged was seen during the Mill Creek field trip – also on the 18th. It usually takes me about five years to see three Broad-winged Hawks, and here were three in a single day! Finally, there was an adult Peregrine Falcon perched on the vulture roost at Palm Point this morning. Mike Manetz had time to snap a photo before it flew away.
A handful of migrant warblers have been showing up locally. On the 17th Becky Enneis of Alachua wrote, “Finally! Since noon at the drip pool I’ve had Worm-eating Warbler, male Black-throated Blue, and male Blackpoll.” On the 18th Matt O’Sullivan found eight warbler species at Palm Point, including a Cape May, a Black-throated Blue, an American Redstart, and a Northern Waterthrush. On the 20th Mike Manetz had three Cape Mays and a Blackpoll there, as well as a Northern Waterthrush. He returned today, with John Hintermister, Howard Adams, and me, but although we found four Cape Mays, a Prairie, and a Northern Waterthrush, and had 53 species overall (including a flyover Yellow-crowned Night-Heron seen only by John and Mike), the number of migrants seemed to have declined over the three-day period. We’ve still got another week and a half to the warbler migration, however, and it usually finishes strong.
Indigo Buntings are migrating through, and Painted Buntings often accompany them. Phil Laipis had two females in his NW Gainesville yard on the 19th and Rich Lewis had a male eating chopped suet and bark butter in his NW Gainesville yard on the 20th.
John Hintermister and Steve Nesbitt visited Steinhatchee Springs WMA on the 17th and tallied seven (seven!) singing Swainson’s Warblers (seven!). John tells me that he plans to make Steinhatchee Springs one of his stops on the Hickory Mound field trip on the 26th (seven!). Details here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/event/hickory-mound-wildlife-management-area/?instance_id=405
The Western Tanager at Jack and Mary Lynch’s yard is still there, and has been molting in the red head of his breeding plumage. Kathy Malone got a photo on the 17th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/17039875120/
Speaking of Kathy, she had a very neat idea to help nesting birds: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kmalone98/17170394481/
Hugo Kons got a nice photo of a Barn Swallow at its nest under the I-75 overpass at Williston Road on the 13th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/17225536972/
Donny Griffin sent this to me. It’s a video of a big hummingbird that makes daily visits to a Brazilian guy who feeds him, flying in through his open window: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=716617805095045&fref=nf
Hope to see you at the Millhopper Library at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 22nd. Once we’ve absorbed what Dr. Sieving has to say we’ll be like the NSA to titmice, eavesdropping on their every communication!