From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
Greetings from New York! I’m visiting my son here in the absurdly beautiful village of Sackets Harbor at the east end of Lake Ontario, a place so small that it doesn’t have a traffic light and so old that the stonework Army barracks constructed during the War of 1812 are still standing (and being used as apartments!). Anyway, I’ve been here since the 1st and so I missed the excitement at the end of this year’s June Challenge. It seems to have been our best horse race ever. This is the entire point of making it a competition, getting people out to find something new, something that otherwise wouldn’t have been discovered, like a Lesser Scaup, apparently-nesting Broad-winged Hawks, straying Least, Royal, and Caspian Terns, and early-arriving Black-and-white Warbler and Louisiana Waterthrush – not to mention all the things found at the beginning of the month! The winning total of 129 sets a new record for Alachua County’s June Challenge. It’s worth noting that the second-place total of 128 ALSO sets a new record. I’d thought the previous record (126) would stand for a while, since it had been set during a drought year with lots of unexpected birds around the muddy shores of Newnans Lake. Anyway, congratulations to all our winners: Mike Manetz and Lloyd Davis tied for first, Peter Polshek at second, Howard Adams at third, and Sam Ewing, Nora Parks-Church, and Maddy Knight coming in one, two, and three in the youth category.
We had 46 participants this year, including five under the age of 16. Of those 46, precisely half saw 100 or more birds. Well done, everyone!
Bob Carroll was kind enough to act as compiler this year, receiving the emails from the participants and tallying them up for me. Thank you, Bob.
Lloyd Davis 124/5 (tie)
Mike Manetz 124/5 (tie)
Peter Polshek 122/6
Howard Adams 119/4
Danny Shehee 118/2 (photographed 107 species during the month!)
Brad Hall 115/3
Barbara Shea 114/3
Susan Jacobson 113/2
Chris Cattau 111/3
Rex Rowan 111/0
Ron Robinson 108/2
Dean Ewing 106/4
Bob Carroll 106/3
John Hintermister 106/0
Ben Ewing 105/4
Sam Ewing 105/4 (14 years old)
Deena Mickelson 105/2
Anne Casella 103/0
Marie Davis 101/5
Ellen Frattino 99/4
Will Sexton 99/2
Jennifer Donsky 98/0
Sharon Kuchinski 97/3
Katherine Edison 96/4
Erika Simons 94/4
Bob Simons 93/4
John Martin 93/3
Tina Greenberg 92/4
Debbie Segal 92/3
Becky Enneis 92/0
Anne Barkdoll 90/3
Trina Anderson 88/0
Geoff Parks 84/1
Bob Knight 82/0
Andy Kratter 81/0
Cindy Boyd 78/0
Linda Holt 77/0
Nora Parks-Church 76/1 (11 years old)
Erin Kalinowski 76/0
Maddy Knight 66/3 (5 years old)
Isaac Ewing 65/0 (6 years old)
Emily Schwartz 64/1
Scott Knight 60/0
Owen Parks-Church 55/0 (7 years old)
Bill Enneis 52/0
Sue Ann Enneis 52/0
We counted an astonishing 138 species this June, and here they are. Non-ABA-countable exotics are marked with an asterisk (*).
1. Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
2. Swan Goose*
3. Graylag Goose*
4. Black Swan*
5. Muscovy Duck
6. Wood Duck
7. Mallard*
8. Mottled Duck
9. Blue-winged Teal
10. Lesser Scaup
11. Helmeted Guineafowl*
12. Northern Bobwhite
13. Indian Peafowl*
14. Wild Turkey
15. Common Loon
16. Pied-billed Grebe
17. Wood Stork
18. Double-crested Cormorant
19. Anhinga
20. Brown Pelican
21. Least Bittern
22. Great Blue Heron
23. Great Egret
24. Snowy Egret
25. Little Blue Heron
26. Tricolored Heron
27. Cattle Egret
28. Green Heron
29. Black-crowned Night-Heron
30. Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
31. White Ibis
32. Glossy Ibis
33. Roseate Spoonbill
34. Black Vulture
35. Turkey Vulture
36. Osprey
37. Swallow-tailed Kite
38. Mississippi Kite
39. Bald Eagle
40. Cooper’s Hawk
41. Red-shouldered Hawk
42. Broad-winged Hawk
43. Short-tailed Hawk
44. Red-tailed Hawk
45. King Rail
46. Purple Gallinule
47. Common Gallinule
48. American Coot
49. Limpkin
50. Sandhill Crane
51. Whooping Crane
52. Black-necked Stilt
53. Semipalmated Plover
54. Killdeer
55. Spotted Sandpiper
56. Greater Yellowlegs
57. Least Sandpiper
58. Semipalmated Sandpiper
59. Red-necked Phalarope
60. Laughing Gull
61. Least Tern
62. Caspian Tern
63. Royal Tern
64. Rock Pigeon
65. Eurasian Collared-Dove
66. White-winged Dove
67. Mourning Dove
68. Common Ground-Dove
69. Yellow-billed Cuckoo
70. Barn Owl
71. Eastern Screech-Owl
72. Great Horned Owl
73. Burrowing Owl
74. Barred Owl
75. Common Nighthawk
76. Chuck-will’s-widow
77. Chimney Swift
78. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
79. Belted Kingfisher
80. Red-headed Woodpecker
81. Red-bellied Woodpecker
82. Downy Woodpecker
83. Northern Flicker
84. Pileated Woodpecker
85. American Kestrel
86. Eastern Wood-Pewee
87. Acadian Flycatcher
88. Great Crested Flycatcher
89. Eastern Kingbird
90. Loggerhead Shrike
91. White-eyed Vireo
92. Yellow-throated Vireo
93. Red-eyed Vireo
94. Blue Jay
95. American Crow
96. Fish Crow
97. Purple Martin
98. Tree Swallow
99. Northern Rough-winged Swallow
100. Barn Swallow
101. Carolina Chickadee
102. Tufted Titmouse
103. Brown-headed Nuthatch
104. Carolina Wren
105. Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
106. Eastern Bluebird
107. American Robin
108. Gray Catbird
109. Brown Thrasher
110. Northern Mockingbird
111. European Starling
112. Louisiana Waterthrush
113. Black-and-white Warbler
114. Prothonotary Warbler
115. Common Yellowthroat
116. Hooded Warbler
117. American Redstart
118. Northern Parula
119. Blackpoll Warbler
120. Pine Warbler
121. Yellow-throated Warbler
122. Prairie Warbler
123. Yellow-breasted Chat
124. Eastern Towhee
125. Bachman’s Sparrow
126. Summer Tanager
127. Northern Cardinal
128. Blue Grosbeak
129. Indigo Bunting
130. Bobolink
131. Red-winged Blackbird
132. Eastern Meadowlark
133. Common Grackle
134. Boat-tailed Grackle
135. Brown-headed Cowbird
136. Orchard Oriole
137. House Finch
138. House Sparrow