Rob Norton photographed the Snail Kite at Sweetwater Wetlands Park this morning. “Here’s the story: I met Erika Simons at the last flow control where she thought she saw the bird around 7:30. I decided to wait with her for possible return. I saw it arrive in the corner from the Prairie side of the canal at 8:50. We watched and photographed it until about 9:40. When it left, it was carrying a twig and I got really interested in that. I think the time of year and quality of habitat have switched on a response in this bird. Too bad more kites are not present, yet. Snail Kite at the Prairie is not unprecedented, but seeing one carrying nesting material could be.” The kite has been seen every day since the 20th, usually once or twice in the morning and once in the late afternoon. Your best chance is probably to be there when the gates swing open at 7 a.m. and to walk as rapidly as you can to the point most distant from the entrance. It seems to spend all its time around the south “moat,” but especially in the southeastern part of the complex. I put up a rather hastily-written blog post on the Gainesville Sun site, which is worth looking at for the photos: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/807/a-rare-bird-visits-gainesville/
This morning Ron Robinson and I conducted a loon watch at Jonesville County Park on County Road 241. We got there just before 8:00 and left just before 10:00. The 28 loons we saw were all flying northeast between 8:30 and 9:15. We actually did a little better this morning than Andy Kratter, who counted 7 loons between 8:20 and 10:00 from his usual vantage at Pine Grove Cemetery. As we were finishing up, Ron pointed out a Loggerhead Shrike sitting on a nest in a small oak tree.
Speaking of Ron, he lost his camera clip while looking for the Brown Creeper at Tuscawilla Prairie. Has anyone seen it? Here’s what it looks like: http://spiderholster.com/black-widow/
Future Shock: Yesterday, in an email to eBird regional reviewers on the subject of documentary photographs, eBird Project Leader Brian Sullivan wrote, “Ideally we’ll get to the point where computer vision algorithms will scan these images during upload and give people feedback on whether the species is right or wrong – something that could drastically improve data quality. Seems like science fiction, but we’re actually pretty close on this.” Soon enough, birders will be superfluous. Do I have the birding skills of an algorithm? Probably not.
Alachua Audubon has scheduled a field trip to Watermelon Pond on Saturday morning. However the weather seems to have scheduled a conflicting thunderstorm, so….
Debbie Segal will give a presentation on Sweetwater Wetlands Park at the Prairie Creek Lodge (7204 SE County Road 234, between Rochelle and the Camps Canal bridge) at 6:30 p.m. on the 29th: “Debbie will describe how the constructed treatment wetlands operate using native wetland plants to remove nutrients and pollutants from the water. Debbie is an environmental scientist who has worked in the field of wetlands ecology, soil science, and environmental permitting for over 25 years. While working with Wetland Solutions, Inc., Debbie helped design and permit Sweetwater Wetlands Park. She is a volunteer for the Alachua Audubon Society and the Florida Springs Institute where she advocates for environmental protection.” Debbie will also lead a walk at SWP the following morning, March 30th, beginning at 8:30. The public is welcome to attend both events.