From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
John Hintermister found a Yellow-headed Blackbird at the Hague Dairy at about lunchtime today. That’s the third of the fall.
There’s a scene in “True Grit” where Rooster Cogburn, impressed with the persistence and daring of Mattie Ross, declares, “She reminds me of me!” I’d like to say that about Sam and Ben Ewing, but I was never half as intrepid as they are. Sam wrote on the 25th, “Ben and I climbed to the top of the stadium this evening to watch the skyline for swifts. Around 5:15 the first swift showed up and flew all over the place for a while. It finally began circling between the stadium and Century Tower, and finally dropped down into a chimney. We could not see exactly where, so we hurried to the tip top of the stadium, and spotted eleven more swifts flying around. We watched them, and spotted them go down a chimney a few buildings over. We first figured out where it looked to be on a satellite map, and then biked over and confirmed the location – they are roosting in the double chimney at Dauer Hall, right next to Pugh Hall. All twelve seemed to go into the same chimney, the first going in probably shortly after 5:20, and the rest going in around 5:30 or shortly after. I don’t know if we will make it out there tomorrow night or not, but staking out directly below the chimney should yield a positive identification.” Sam and Ben and Matt O’Sullivan went back to Dauer Hall the next evening: “We saw a minimum of fourteen swifts enter the chimney between 5:30 and 5:40, but unfortunately they were all silent. After they all went in, individual birds kept flying out one at a time, circling, and then going back in. The last one did that at about 5:54. I guess we will just have to continue staking the location out, and hope for vocalizations.”
The Gray-headed Swamphen was seen daily from the 19th through the 22nd and then disappeared, but luckily it was just taking a little break. It was seen yesterday and today in the same spot where it was found, at the water control structure on the far (south) side of Cell 1. Unfortunately the Fulvous Whistling-Duck hasn’t been seen since the 22nd, when Pete Hosner photographed it: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S25948405
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!