It’s a long-standing daydream of many Gainesville birders: a tropical storm blows in, the lake is full of seabirds, and instead of having to stand at Palm Point, squinting through our telescopes at distant specks moving against the far treeline, we commandeer a motorboat, go roaring out into the lake, and give chase.
And in fact, that’s what happened on Saturday.
First, however: I was surprised when John Hintermister called on Saturday morning to tell me about the Black-capped Petrel. Since Hurricane Matthew accomplished its tour of the Florida coast on Friday, and was already in Georgia when the sun set, I’d assumed that storm-blown birds would have been at the lake Friday, not Saturday, and that as the storm receded they’d have taken advantage of the existing daylight and calmer conditions to return to the coast. Accordingly, I went to Palm Point Friday morning, as the hurricane approached. Matt Bruce was there, too, and he said that Andy Kratter had already come and gone. None of us saw anything on the lake but a couple of Laughing Gulls. Well, I said, I’ll come back in the afternoon, when the storm is closer.
I did go back in the afternoon, when the storm was somewhere around Jacksonville, after the local rain and wind had diminished a bit. Craig Bateman was already there and Ryan Terrill showed up a few minutes after I did. There were some swallows flying back and forth at the point, maybe 3-5 Cliff Swallows and 3 Barn Swallows. Ryan got a picture of one of the Cliff Swallows: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/30086682532/in/datetaken-public/ And Craig spotted a Royal Tern across the lake that eventually flew right past the Point, allowing Ryan to get another good shot: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/30201274865/in/datetaken-public/ That was about it. I wrote off Matthew as a typically unproductive Atlantic hurricane and went home.
But then! This morning Adam Kent and Chris Burney went to Newnans Lake, wondering if any wind-blown birds were still hanging around. They started at Powers Park but didn’t see much, so they went on to Owens-Illinois Park in Windsor, where the sun would be at their backs. Adam was scanning the lake when he saw a bird sitting on the water a long way out. It had a black back and a black cap and the white on it sort of gleamed, and he realized that it was a Black-capped Petrel. The word went out, and Adam estimates that as many as 50 people showed up to look at it during the morning (Jonathan Mays counted 32 standing there at once).
The bird stayed a good distance out from the shore, flying briefly and then sitting for long periods of time on the water, and Andy Kratter commented to Adam that it was a shame it was so far away, because the 2004 petrel was not documented by a photo either. So Adam had an idea. He turned to Debbie Segal and asked, “Don’t you own a boat?” Debbie does own a boat, but it was parked at her place several miles north of Gainesville. However it occurred to her that her mother’s cousin, Marshall Irby, also owned a boat – and that he lived right there in Windsor! So she gave him a call, and he was very obliging. He brought his boat down to the ramp, where Debbie, Adam, and Ryan Terrill (with camera) climbed aboard, and they headed out into the lake. It worked like a charm, and Ryan got several photos from close range. (Incidentally, Adam told me that Mr. Irby got a huge kick out of the experience. “I’ve never done anything like this!” he said.) Then they returned to the boat ramp and Glenn Price, John Martin, and Mitch Walters, all carrying cameras, went out in their place and got even more photos. Several of us were watching this from Palm Point through our telescopes. We were impressed by how close they were getting to the bird – they were standing in the boat, looking down – and when the bird flushed off the water we were able to see it fly.
Here are the best photos I’ve seen from those two excursions:
The petrel sitting on the water, as it was originally discovered (though it was far more distant than this when Adam first saw it): https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/30116472881/in/datetaken-public/
The petrel in flight: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/29572051753/in/datetaken-public/
Another flight photo, the kind of dramatic look you’d get from a boat in the Gulf Stream, but only if you were very lucky: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/30166867066/in/datetaken-public/
Another flight photo, showing the underparts, including the characteristic underwing pattern: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/29572065864/in/datetaken-public/
And one more. Since it’s a bird of the Gulf Stream, this is possibly the only existing photo of a Black-capped Petrel with trees in the background: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/29572019343/in/datetaken-public/
I last saw the petrel from Palm Point around 11:30, and I headed home at 12:45. However an out-of-town birder named Graham Floyd reported seeing it at 5:30, “flying north up center of lake following a boat. Distinct black cap and white band cutting across underside of wings, white below.” So it’s possible that it may still be present on Sunday.
Also on the lake on Saturday was a juvenile Herring Gull. It tied the early fall-arrival record for the county, which – this is sort of interesting – was set 20 years ago to the day, October 8, 1996, the morning after Tropical Storm Josephine went ashore at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, bringing 20 Herring Gulls, 2 Black Skimmers, 4 Sooty Terns, 2-3 Common Terns, and 2 Pomarine Jaegers (the county’s first and only) to Newnans Lake. We didn’t have a crowd of 50 people that morning. I think it was just me, John Hintermister, and the late Judy Bryan. I’m not sure there were 50 birders in Alachua County in 1996….
Moving right along. Most of us have long suspected that the Ewing family has a “special arrangement” with the birds. I’m not sure whether cash changes hands, or investment tips, or whatever, but a suspiciously large percentage of good birds around here are seen by Ewings. Most recently, their NW Gainesville yard hosted a Canada Warbler and a Nashville Warbler on Friday, and a Cape May Warbler on Saturday. Cape May is normally rare here in fall. Another Cape May was seen and photographed by John Martin and Matt Bruce at Palm Point on the 8th. Both were probably blown in by the storm.
Chris Burney found three Golden-winged Warblers (three!) at Bolen Bluff on the 5th, as well as 12 other warbler species.
Danny Rohan recorded the fall’s first Savannah Sparrow on the 3rd at Sweetwater Wetlands Park. Just one day later than the county’s early record.
Those of you who have birded the Shands Pier in Green Cove Springs should know that it was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew. Steve Raduns posted a photo of the pier’s remains: https://www.flickr.com/photos/134018738@N05/30165018496/
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