It’s late May, isn’t it? Just about a week from June. What happens in June? Something. Can’t remember. I’m sure it will come to me.
On behalf of a Cuban bird researcher, Gina Kent asks, “Do you know someone with a house/condo/apartment/room available in July for a Cuban family that has just recently moved to Florida? Ariam Jimenez is a colleague and friend, the recent head chair of the biology department at the University of Havana (specialty in bird research) and he and his wife and 4-year-old son are in the process of getting work status to stay here in Florida. We would love to help them settle into Gainesville with a ‘head start’ living situation while they get their feet on the ground. It would be very helpful if there were a place that needed house sitting. Even just one month would be a great help to this wonderful, professional, and responsible family.” You can reach Gina at ginakent@arcinst.org
Mike Manetz saw the season’s first Roseate Spoonbill flying over Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 20th. There were two subsequent sightings on the 21st, possibly involving the same bird, one at La Chua by Adam Zions and one at Bivens Arm lake by Adam and Gina Kent.
Tom Wronski had a spectacular visitor to his back yard overlooking the south rim of the Prairie on May 21st: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26875790060/in/dateposted-public/
Something to watch for: Cliff Swallows – which are common everywhere in the United States but the southeast – have slowly been establishing themselves as a breeding species in Florida, both south of us and in the Panhandle. There are currently two to four nests under the State Road 50 bridge over the St. Johns River on the Orange/Brevard county line, and at Lake Seminole in Gadsden County (about 35 miles northwest of Tallahassee), Andy Wraithmell has reported, “at least 21 active nests this year up from at least 9 active nests in 2015.” Won’t be long before they show up here. Maybe they’re here already!
Back in 1995 our local backyard guru Ron Robinson almost got himself a TV show called “Backyard Birding with Ron Robinson.” It never came to pass, but Ron recently had the VHS of the promotional trailer digitized, and you can see it (featuring Ron in his mid-40s) on YouTube. You’ll have to endure a minute-and-a-half intro with a Kenny Loggins soundtrack, or you can just advance to 1:30. Those of you who have taken the community education birding class may recognize Kathy Haines in the red plaid blouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNdZuJnDFh8
The American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list Committee will release revisions to its Check-list of North American Birds this summer (probably in July), and some changes have been proposed, for instance lumping Hoary and Common Redpolls and Caribbean and American Coots, but recognizing a new scrub-jay and a new meadowlark and splitting Leach’s Storm-Petrel into three species. Plus various other forms of taxonomic tomfoolery. If you’d like to look them over – keeping in mind that these are just proposals and haven’t been accepted yet – here you go. Each begins with a summary of the proposals and then, as you scroll down, each proposal is described in detail.
http://checklist.aou.org/assets/proposals/PDF/2016-A.pdf
http://checklist.aou.org/assets/proposals/PDF/2016-B.pdf
http://checklist.aou.org/assets/proposals/PDF/2016-C.pdf
As you may have read in Sunday’s Gainesville Sun (link to article), the Department of Transportation is planning a new highway that may ultimately extend as a toll road from Tampa to Jacksonville through northern Marion and east Putnam and Clay Counties. Here’s the project website: http://www.i75relief.com/ Joyce King of Santa Fe Audubon writes that the map which I’ve attached to this email, “shows where the extension of the ‘purple swath’ on the [web site’s] map will go. From Highway 326 just north of Ocala east through Putnam County on Highway 315, north to Highway 21 north of Keystone Heights, to join the First Coast Expressway at Middleburg. This route will not show on any map – it’s our prediction based on the inevitable extension of the purple swath to join with the First Coast Expressway in Middleburg. A new task force will be appointed to work on the extension into Putnam and Clay Counties (we think).” And here’s the page that shows where you can attend meetings to give input (note that meetings will be held in Gainesville on June 7th, Ocala on June 8th, and Lecanto on June 9th): http://www.i75relief.com/meetings.html
