Author: Rex Rowan

Jack and Mary Lynch of High Springs (of Calliope Hummingbird fame) have a Western Tanager visiting their yard. They’re opening their yard to visitors this Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning (March 5-7) from sunrise to 10:30 a.m. Mary writes, “We are open to folks letting themselves in by the side gate as early as they wish. Please enter slowly because there is an active Bluebird box to the right as they enter the gate. Also, please, please stress the importance of not parking anywhere beyond our driveway or no one will see any birds or have any quiet because of the blasted dogs next door. Oh and our address now is 18841 NW 244th Street. High Springs is now part of the County 911 Fire and Rescue so they changed our street and house numbers to end confusion.” Again, do not park north of their driveway. South of the driveway is fine, and across the street is fine, but not north of the driveway because of the dogs.

A Winter Wren was discovered along O’Leno State Park’s River Trail last October, but no one went back to see it until Mike Manetz re-found it on February 10th. The bird was last seen on the 20th. On the 25th Doug Richard of Ocala went up in hopes of finding it. He didn’t, but he did manage to photograph one of the earliest Louisiana Waterthrushes ever recorded in Alachua County: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/25192295310/in/dateposted-public/

Lloyd Davis saw a Barn Swallow at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 25th, tying (or setting?) the early record for Alachua County. The locally-nesting swallows seem to be early arrivals. Martins arrive in January and February, and Barn Swallows and Northern Rough-winged Swallows arrive in early March.

Speaking of spring arrivals, the county’s first Chuck-will’s-widow of the spring was flushed by Andy Kratter in his SE Gainesville yard on the 29th, the first Swallow-tailed Kite was seen in SW Gainesville on the 2nd, and the first Indigo Bunting was seen by Ron Robinson on the 3rd. It’s time for the first Ruby-throated Hummingbirds to show up.

I ran into Roy Herrera at La Chua today and he told me that at Sweetwater Wetlands Park he’d watched a Limpkin work over a fallen log for twenty minutes, methodically probing into cracks with its bill. In my experience Limpkins eat snails and freshwater mussels, nothing else, so I couldn’t figure out what the bird had been doing. I looked up Limpkin in Birds of North America Online, and under Food Habits I found this (after lots of stuff about snails and mussels, of course): “Occasionally eats lizards, frogs, insects, crustaceans, and worms; may be especially useful when forced into suboptimal habitats during drought and flooding. Reported eating grasshoppers on lawns in drought. Five individuals observed in Sarasota Co., FL, in burned marsh adjacent to good snail habitat raising their wings to stir up masses of small ‘blind mosquitoes,’ then snapping at grasses where the insects alighted. Commonly eats rotten wood, usually before or after foraging on normal prey. One vagrant in Florida Keys fed on mash put out for domestic ducks.” Roy also mentioned that he has repeatedly seen one Limpkin sitting down in a particular spot near the boardwalk. Roy wonders if it may be on a nest; the area is partly hidden by grass, so he can’t tell for sure. In northern Florida, according to Birds of North America Online (again), Limpkins lay their eggs between late February through July, so it’s certainly possible that Roy’s bird is sitting on eggs.

Earlier this week Ron Robinson went walking on Sparrow Alley, where he saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk nab a Blue Jay and bear it down to the ground. The two birds struggled for a moment, and then a Bobcat leaped out from behind a tree and landed on both birds! In the confusion the Sharpie got away and the Blue Jay, still stunned, fluttered up into the low branches of a tree. Ron watched as the Bobcat climbed a neighboring tree, hopped over into the tree in which the Blue Jay was still trying to gather its wits, and then dropped straight down on the Blue Jay, driving it to the ground, then picking it up and trotting away with it.

Butterflies are slowly emerging. I saw a Black Swallowtail and a Monarch where Cross Creek empties into Orange Lake on the 18th, a Tiger Swallowtail in my NE Gainesville back yard on the 25th, and a second Black Swallowtail at La Chua on the 3rd. A few Cloudless Sulphurs are flying around, as well as a couple of Orange-barred Sulphurs straying north from South Florida.

The accessible part of the La Chua Trail has been extended, though you still can’t get all the way out to the observation tower. There was a bison at the water control structure today.

Dotty Robbins writes, “If you want to stay informed on water issues in our area, I suggest subscribing to Our Santa Fe River’s newsletter. It covers a range of topics–as you can see below. It’s free, and you can opt to receive it once a week–my preference. OSFR would like you to join, but you don’t have to, and they don’t pester you. It will keep you informed on local planned development and anything that affects rivers, springs, and aquifer. I really appreciate the efforts of folks who are willing to stand up and fight for our environment.” Here’s the link to Our Santa Fe River’s news site, and the link to “Subscribe to Our Newsletter” is at the bottom of the page: http://oursantaferiver.org/wp/news/

Sarah Brown, a biologist at Tall Timbers, writes, “Just wondering if anyone knows of a good birder that would like to do point counts for us from April-June on Osceola National Forest in Lake City for $16/hr. I haven’t gotten any good applicants and am getting a bit nervous I won’t find someone so if you happen know of anyone please let me know. Thanks!” If you want to do some birding in the pinewoods and get paid $16 per hour for it, contact Sarah at sbrown@ttrs.org

Here’s a question for the knowledgeable folks on the mailing list. Let’s say a Summer Tanager is spending the winter in Gainesville. How far is it likely to roam? Phil Laipis saw one in his neighborhood near University and 34th on December 11th. Eleven days later, Andy Kratter saw one at Lake Alice, approximately 0.8 mile away. Both Phil and Andy described the bird as a female with reddish undertail coverts. Sam Ewing then had three sightings of a female Summer Tanager at his place between January 6th and January 11th. Sam lives about 0.7 miles from Phil and 1.2 mile from Lake Alice. Then, on February 17th, Sam photographed a female Summer Tanager with reddish undertail coverts at the intersection of NW 34th Street and 16th Avenue, 0.7 miles from his house, 1.0 mile from Phil’s house, and 1.8 miles from Lake Alice. What would you think? All the same bird?

Since December 1st, birders have reported Summer Tanagers in 21 different locations. Were there 21 different individuals, or as few as 8 or 9? It’s impossible to be certain, but if we knew how far a Summer Tanager would wander we might be able to group the sightings geographically and come up with a realistic estimate. All winter Adam and Gina Kent have made repeated sightings of up to three individual tanagers at their place near the intersection of University and Waldo. Could one of these be the bird that Bubba Scales and Geoff Parks heard at Citizens Field, just one mile away, on January 2nd? In other words, are we talking about three individuals in this case, one of which flew to Citizens Field, or was the Citizens Field bird a fourth individual?

I’ve started thinking more about this since I spotted a color-banded Carolina Chickadee at my backyard feeder on the 13th and 14th. I reported it to the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, which has been color-banding backyard birds around Gainesville, and I was informed that it had been banded “at a backyard site a little over 1.5 miles away from your address.” (He wouldn’t tell me where or when, though. The bands were a silver USFWS band over bright yellow on the right, light purple on the left. I’d be interested in knowing where and when it was banded.) If a little short-winged homebody like a Carolina Chickadee will roam a mile and a half, how far will a long-winged intercontinental migrant like a Summer Tanager wander?

Spring is here, by which I mean the Northern Parulas are arriving. Adam Zions has had one in his SW Gainesville yard all winter, but on the 20th he saw one that he recognized as different, “an assumed migrant,” and three days later Mike Manetz heard six of them singing at San Felasco’s Moonshine Creek Trail.

John Hintermister, who lives several miles north of Gainesville, and Linda Hensley, who lives in NW Gainesville, both had Nashville Warblers visit their yards on the 22nd. Linda’s cousin got a photo of the bird perched in a wild azalea: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/25211455006/in/dateposted-public/ These are Alachua County’s fourth and fifth Nashville Warblers of the winter season.

A couple of days ago I had twenty or thirty American Goldfinches at my feeder. Today I don’t have a single one. Ron Robinson reported something similar. This happens every winter. It probably has something to do with the availability of wild food sources; elm trees are suddenly covered by edible samaras, for instance. Once these wild food sources are eaten, or fallen, the goldfinches will return to the feeders. Meanwhile enjoy your cardinals, House Finches, and Chipping Sparrows. (Why don’t the House Finches abandon the feeders for wild foods too? They’re in the subfamily Carduelinae just like the goldfinches.)

If you’ve got an answer for the question posed in the first three paragraphs, I’d like to hear it.

At 5 p.m. on Tuesday the County Commission will hold a public meeting at Eastside High School to vote on Plum Creek’s “Envision Alachua” plan. There will be presentations by county staff and by representatives of Plum Creek. There will be time for public comment. All of this may extend to a second meeting at 5 p.m. Thursday. The county’s Environmental Protection staff have produced a report that advises against Envision Alachua: “The Plum Creek proposal contains policies that would reduce protections and allow intense growth that is incompatible with this rural area of the County….Staff has analyzed the Envision Alachua Sector Plan application including the supporting data and analysis and, based on the results of that analysis, is making a recommendation to the County Commission that it deny the proposed amendment.” (You can see the full report at this link.) This may be the meeting that decides whether Gainesville continues as Gainesville or starts turning into Orlando, so come to the meeting if you can to support the county staff and to urge the County Commissioners to hold the line.

Spring is running late this year. I saw my first redbud blossoms last week, and a few maples in bloom along Waldo Road. Wild plums are just getting started. Virginia Peppergrass and Black Medick are only now beginning to bloom. Generally all of these are well along by mid- to late January. In fact last winter we saw a Red Maple in full bloom, attracting hundreds of honeybees, in mid-December! True, that was unusually early; but this year everything is unusually late.

Winter rarities are still around, but I wouldn’t wait much longer to see them. The most recent eBird reports for the Brown Creeper at Tuscawilla Prairie, the Black-chinned Hummingbird at the Ewings’ home, and the Vaux’s Swifts at UF’s Dauer Hall are all dated February 13th.

Our rare wintering warblers are gone, or simply being seen less often (maybe because no one’s looking for them any more): the most recently-reported Wilson’s Warbler was at La Chua on the 4th; the Worm-eating Warbler at UF was last reported on the 6th; the American Redstart at the Hague Dairy was last seen on the 7th; the one remaining Nashville Warbler was last reported at Chapmans Pond on the 8th. On the other hand, as of the 14th Adam Zions is still seeing one of the two Black-throated Green Warblers that wintered in his SW Gainesville neighborhood.

The two Purple / Gray-headed Swamphens are being seen semi-regularly at Sweetwater Wetlands Park, but not in their old spot. You have to walk out to the farthest point on the boardwalk, cross your fingers, and hold your mouth right. They were seen earlier this afternoon by Barbara Shea (who followed those instructions to the letter).

Speaking of colorful birds at SWP, a pair of Painted Buntings has been seen regularly around the gate down the slope from the restrooms, most recently by Jeffrey Graham on the 13th, “near a picnic table to the right on the paved path just after the gate.” Jeffrey included a couple of photos in his eBird checklist. Dick and Patty Bartlett, who live in an adjoining neighborhood, have had two females visiting their place recently.

Using a GoPro camera, Bubba Scales of Wild Birds Unlimited has posted some up-close-and-personal feeder videos that are both amusing and amazing. Check out all the orioles in Lloyd and Marie Davis’s back yard and the throngs of waxwings and goldfinches at Gene and Pam Stine’s place: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbOKxl32u5t9tkmHF6igPXQ

The Common Loon was still in the North Florida Regional Medical Center pond on the 10th, but I didn’t see it on the 12th. “Loonacy” will begin a month from today, when Andy Kratter starts tallying northbound loons during daily skywatches from Pine Grove Cemetery. Last year I wrote a Gainesville Sun blog post about Andy and his dog Newman conducting a loon watch: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/62/loon-migration-over-gainesville/

And of course the Sandhill Cranes are leaving. Yesterday Adam Zions estimated 275 going north over SW Gainesville, Chip Deutsch counted 98 going north over NW Gainesville, and Donny Griffin saw a flock of 75 going north over the Osceola National Forest.

Once again Bob Carroll’s Third Thursday Retirees’ and General Layabouts’ Birding Group is sticking its thumb in the eye of the working man. Bob writes, “As promised, this month we will be visiting Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland. Many of you will remember the great time we had there last year. And recent reports from the Reserve have been very promising including four male Painted Buntings! My plan is to leave from the Target parking lot on Archer Road at 6:30 on Thursday morning, February 18. That should get us to the Reserve by 8:45. I’m going to take a different route this time to try to avoid some of the heaviest traffic, and I’ll have details for you on Thursday morning. Last year we ate lunch at Palace Pizza in downtown Lakeland. The food was terrific, but the parking was a nightmare. Well, there’s good news on that front. Palace Pizza has opened a second location that is fairly close to the Reserve. It has a very large parking lot because it’s part of a Publix shopping area. So that’s our lunch destination this time, and I am really looking forward to it. I thought their pizza was really delicious! Please let me know if you’re planning on going with us.” Bob can be reached at gatorbob23@yahoo.com

The Sierra Club is hiring a “grassroots organizer” for its water-quality campaign, and the position will be based in Gainesville. The job description reads: “Sierra Club seeks an Organizing Representative based in Gainesville, Florida to coordinate a broad, volunteer-based citizen education effort and build teams of activists on our campaign to promote clean water for Florida’s springs, rivers, lakes and estuaries.   The ideal candidate has a strong background in recruiting and motivating people to build grassroots power and possesses strong coalition-building, media relations, advocacy, and communications skills. If you can engage volunteer committees, interact with stakeholders at all levels, and have a passion for Sierra Club’s mission to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet, take a look at the full job description and application information here: https://chm.tbe.taleo.net/chm01/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=SIERRACLUB&cws=1&rid=674&org=SIERRACLUB ”

Remember: Eastside High School, Tuesday, 5 p.m. Let the County Commissioners know that you like Alachua County the way it is.

Sam Ewing just informed me that an immature male Black-chinned Hummingbird is visiting feeders at the family’s NW Gainesville home. Anyone who’d like to see the bird is welcome to drop by. He writes, “It has been visiting our feeders regularly this morning, and has definitely been around at least since yesterday, but I had assumed it was a Ruby-throated. It is just getting a few purple gorget feathers. If anyone wants to come over to try to see it, feel free to do so anytime! No need to call or email ahead of time. It has been coming regularly so far, so I would guess it will at least be around most of the day. We will be home pretty much all day today as well as Saturday. It is visiting at least one of the feeders on our front porch, usually the one on the left when looking at our house from the road. It perches in the bush on the west side of our front porch (a camellia). Our address is 2610 NW 11th Avenue.” From NW 16th Avenue, take NW 25th Terrace south to NW 11th Avenue and turn right; the house is halfway down the street on the right. Thanks to Sam and to his family.

The Florida Conservation Coalition is asking for your help with a bill that threatens state lands: http://floridaconservationcoalition.org/pages/alerts

“The Messenger,” an important documentary on the conservation of songbirds, will be screened at The Hipp at 7:15 p.m. on Friday, February 12th. Make plans to see it. Here’s the web site, with a trailer: http://songbirdsos.com/ And here’s a five-minute segment of the film in which a researcher nets a Hooded Warbler that had been fitted out with a geolocator one year previously, removes the geolocator, and is able to see where the bird has spent the winter: http://songbirdsos.com/portfolio/bridget-stutchbury-retrieves-hooded-warbler/ It’s an amazing, amazing thing.

The Sandhill Cranes just got here – most arrived after January 1st and one southbound flock was seen as late as the 25th – but they’re already starting north again. On yesterday’s walk at Sweetwater Wetlands Park someone told me they’d seen northbound flocks this past weekend. Yesterday I saw a V-flock of 27 birds headed north over my NE Gainesville house at about lunchtime, and also yesterday, Steve Zoellner reported that he “saw and heard several flocks trying to group up and gain altitude (succeeding?) to head out.”

This morning Adam Kent heard his first singing Brown Thrasher of the spring. I heard my first Northern Mockingbird singing in Folkston, Georgia, two days ago; I haven’t heard one in Gainesville yet.

The three Pine Siskins that visited my feeders on Tuesday morning were one-day wonders. Almost one-hour wonders, because I didn’t see them again after late morning.

Mike Manetz found a Wilson’s Warbler in a blackberry tangle along the power line cut off Sparrow Alley this morning. That’s the fifth of the winter, I think, the others being at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens (Christmas Bird Count), Chapmans Pond (most recent report January 11th) and up to two at Cones Dike (most recent report January 31st).

This year I hope to finish a book on the birds of Alachua County considered from a historical perspective. Periodically I’ll use this birding report to ask questions about one species or another. For instance, where are the Rock Pigeon populations in Alachua County? I know there’s one at the Hague Dairy, I know there’s one at the UF Beef Teaching Unit (which may involve the same set of birds we see at the UF Vet School and around the VA Hospital), I know there’s one around the intersection of US-301 and State Road 24 in Waldo and another at I-75 and US-441 in Alachua. Where else? I’d be grateful for any information you can send me. Interestingly – to me, anyway – Rock Pigeon is a bird for which the county has no historical data at all. No one knows when it got here. Lists of the county’s breeding birds published in 1888, 1913, and 1936 did not mention it, and Christmas Bird Count data are useless because in 1950 Audubon Field Notes editor John W. Aldrich decreed that Rock Pigeons should not be counted on CBCs: “It is impossible to determine whether certain birds are wild or domestic, and since the distribution and abundance of this species is of so little interest to amateur and professional ornithologists, the best solution seems to be to ignore the Rock Dove completely in future counts.” Consequently they didn’t show up on the Gainesville CBC until this policy was discontinued in 1974. The earliest specimen in the museum is dated simply “1950”; the second-earliest are three dated simply “1952.” Pierce Brodkorb noted that he collected several “domestic” individuals – from the UF campus? from a farm? from a pet shop? – in 1954. So they were evidently in the county by the 50s and 60s. But where are they now, that’s what I want to know. If you know of a population somewhere in Alachua County, please send me an email. Thanks.

And remember to put “The Messenger” on your calendar!

The first Purple Martins of the spring have checked in. Glenn Israel saw the first one at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 24th, and two more showed up at the Prairie Creek Lodge martin house on the 28th. This morning Carmine Lanciani saw one over his NW Gainesville neighborhood. I guess that means winter’s over and it’ll be nothing but dogwoods, azaleas, and sunny, sunny sunshine from here on out, right?

Start watching your feeders for Pine Siskins. I saw three at my tube feeder this morning, eating black-oil sunflower seeds.

Chris Burney, Jessica Hightower, and Caroline Poli found a Lincoln’s Sparrow in a group of Song Sparrows near the boardwalk at La Chua on the 31st.

Don’t know if you saw my blog post on trapping snakes with drift fences, but it’s here: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/701/snake-trapping/

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

On the 30th Chip Deutsch wrote, “I sighted a male Cinnamon Teal today at Sweetwater Wetlands Park – knew it was nice sighting, but did not realize how rare it was until I read your last posting. Lovely bird with a striking coloration, even at a distance. It was located alone in the outer water body SW of cell 2, sighted from SE corner of cell 1.” Several birders went looking for it at Sweetwater this morning, but didn’t relocate it. Maybe it went back to La Chua. We’ll keep our eyes open for it during the next Wednesday Wetlands Walk, meeting at 8:30 a.m. on the 3rd.

Speaking of SWP, the folks from http://www.moonbeampublishing.com/ were out there on the 26th and got this fantastic photo of a Virginia Rail: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/24440772610/in/dateposted-public/

We’ve got lots of wintering warblers around: Pat Bazany and a friend drove up to Gainesville on the 30th to visit the Hague Dairy, where they found a feeding flock of warblers that included an American Redstart and a Nashville Warbler. This may be the same redstart that wintered there last year. That’s four wintering redstarts in Alachua County right now. We never had even one redstart spend the entire winter here until 1997-98, when an immature male passed the entire season in Mike Manetz’s back yard. We’ve had a few since then, but never this many in a single season. The Nashville is presumably the same bird that Keith Collingwood found there on December 4th and photographed: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/24363276629/in/dateposted-public/ That makes three Nashvilles wintering in Alachua County, which is also a record. And Adam Zions has had two Black-throated Green Warblers hanging around his SW Gainesville neighborhood since January 9th (here’s a photo of one). Add to these the Black-throated Blue Warbler seen by Harry Jones at SWP on the 26th and the Worm-eating Warbler that was on the UF campus from December 12-18, not to mention all the Northern Parulas. That’s a lot of migrant warblers north of their usual winter territory.

I’ve included a map of the dairy in this email (see below). As I understand it, Pat saw the Nashville at point G, and for those of you interested in the sparrows mentioned in the previous birding report (Le Conte’s, Henslow’s, and Grasshopper), they’re in the field at J. The map, which is the characteristically splendid work of Jonathan Vaughan, a high school friend from Jacksonville, is from A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida, which is expected to win the Oscar in the category of It’s Not A Movie, But We Don’t Care, Because Isn’t It Just The Best Thing Ever?

Phil Laipis saw a Nashville Warbler at the east end of Chapmans Pond on the 31st, “in the ditch west of the police monument.” He adds, “As an aside, as I was searching the LARGE Live Oak in the middle of the clearing for the Nashville, I twice saw a small (brownish?) bird ‘creeping’ around the trunk, but keeping it between me and it. Nothing responded to Brown Creeper call/song, but I’m thinking Brown Creeper. There was a Black-and-white in the Live Oak, but this really did look brown, in my two 10-msec looks.” The creeper at Tuscawilla Prairie was last reported on the 18th by Matt O’Sullivan.

The Common Loon that Peter Polshek first noticed in the duck pond on the east side of North Florida Regional on the 10th is still there as of the 28th. I contacted Florida Wildlife Care to see if it was stuck and should be rescued – they need a large body of water to take off – but they decided either that it was doing fine or they had no way of capturing it.

I mentioned in my January 17th birding report that I hadn’t heard a Northern Cardinal singing yet. Barbara Shea heard one on the 24th and Ron Robinson heard another on the 25th and now I’m hearing them just about every day.

Speaking of the delayed season, where are the robins? We usually see tons of them by late January, but I’ve only seen a few here and there. I asked around, and Adam Kent and Sam Ewing are noticing this too. It’s not everywhere, though. Mike Manetz, who lives in NW Gainesville, wrote, “Had hordes of robins and common grackles in the yard on the 26th and 27th. They’ll probably make it over to your place a a day or two.” I’m seeing normal numbers of Cedar Waxwings, just not robins.

Donny Griffin forwarded this video of two nestling hummingbirds being fed by wildlife rehabbers: https://www.facebook.com/RaptorEducationGroupInc/videos/10200251956683718/

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

Thanks to all who turned out on a cold and windy Saturday afternoon to march in favor of Paynes Prairie. About 300 people, including quite a few birders, gathered at First Magnitude Brewing, walked up Main Street, and spread out along the four corners of University and Main. Thanks, also, to those of you who called the members of the Subcommittee on Appropriations and urged them not to cut 51 jobs from the Park Service. This is all a lot of trouble and annoyance, I understand, but it seems to be the most effective way to keep our parks going until some perspective is restored to our state government (if it ever is). Our birding is largely dependent on the health of our State Park system, so these marches, letters, emails, petitions, and phone calls are crucially important.

Some nice birds have been seen in the past few days. A party of seven led by Chris Burney found a Henslow’s Sparrow and two Le Conte’s Sparrows in the field east of the Hague Dairy on the 27th. If you take the back way to the dairy, heading toward Alachua on US-441 and turning right onto County Road 25A right after the Deerhaven pond but before the Sunoco station, and then after a little less than a mile turning right onto NW 59th Drive, you’ll see the dairy on your left and a big open field on your right. The sparrows were in that field. It’s still dairy property, so please remember to sign in at the dairy office before you walk onto the field. The group also saw two Painted Buntings, a male and a female. All the birds seem to have been near the field’s edge, as Chris commented that they “flushed from field and perched in viney scrub.”

Even more exciting than the sparrows, Lloyd Davis photographed a drake Cinnamon Teal at La Chua on the 24th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/24302381199/in/dateposted-public/ This is a species that has been recorded only three times previously in Alachua County: Dale Rice and Edward Mockford saw a drake at Lake Alice on March 8, 1953 (Lake Alice was really an excellent birding spot in the 50s; UF students should look up David O. Karraker’s Master’s thesis “The birds of Lake Alice” from 1953 in the Marston Science Library), one or two immatures were seen by many birders at the Dollar General retention pond from September 10th to the 18th or 20th, 2005 (photo), and one was seen by Adam Zions at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on November 24, 2013.

On the 26th Harrison Jones wrote, “I got what I believe to be a female Black-throated Blue in a large mixed-species flock in the parking lot at Sweetwater. The bird was foraging fairly high with the flock in the live oaks near where the pay station is located as you pull into the parking lot. Very nondescript with a marked dark cheek patch and the white wing patch.” As far as I can tell, this is only the ninth winter-season sighting for Black-throated Blue in Alachua County. If December sightings are assumed to involve lingering fall migrants, then it’s only the fourth winter record.

On the 24th Phil Laipis found some Rusty Blackbirds: “After the Dairy, I stopped at Walmart, and then Magnolia Parke to check for Rusty Blackbirds. I saw two in the SW corner of the swamp; probably more from the sounds. I had great looks at one, a female, but the camera was in the car, sigh. Saw them about 2:20, as I was giving up. Also, Red-headed Woodpecker and and two Hooded Mergansers in the E pond. Sedge Wrens and American Bittern at the Dairy, but no unexpected sparrows, except Vesper.”

My darling daughter made me this Christmas present, using a cutout of a generic shorebird with overlapping photos of Paynes Prairie behind it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/24645607436/in/dateposted-public/ The text is from the final stanza of “Inversnaid” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, one of my favorite poets. The complete stanza could serve as a motto for the movement to protect Paynes Prairie and all State Parks: “What would the world be, once bereft / Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, / O let them be left, wildness and wet; / Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”

I got a chuckle out of this Jonathan Mays photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmays/23699271853/

The ultralite-led Whooping Crane migrations have been terminated. This year’s will be the last: http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2016/01/23/end-of-ultralight-guided-migration/ You can watch Joe Duff, co-founder and CEO of Operation Migration, discuss this on OM’s “Live Cam” tonight at 7:30: http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2016/01/28/live-stream-presentation/

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

Hummingbird bander Fred Bassett is coming through town on January 23rd. If you’ve got a hummingbird that’s regularly visiting a FEEDER, and you’d like to have Fred band it – he can also identify it, if it’s a puzzling female or immature bird – send me your name and contact information and I’ll pass them along to Fred. Remember, it has to be visiting a feeder, not flowering plants.

It’s what they call “a slow news day” in the birding-report biz. In fact it’s been a pretty slow winter in general, with low numbers of ducks, cranes, and sparrows, the very species that brighten up the season for us. I led field trips to Sweetwater Wetlands Park on Wednesday and Saturday. The stars of the show out there, the Purple Swamphens, haven’t been seen since December 23rd. Shortly after that date, an airboat spent some time in Cell 1 treating the area for exotic plants, and by the looks of things it scared the swamphens off the property. They’ll probably turn up on Paynes Prairie – by the dozens – before too many years have passed, but meanwhile there’s no place in Alachua County to which I can direct you if you want to see a Purple Swamphen. The best birds from Saturday’s SWP walk with the Clearwater Audubon Society were only slightly out of the ordinary: a Purple Gallinule in Cell 3, a King Rail seen in Cell 1, two Least Bitterns (heard only) in Cell 1, the same Great White Heron that’s been hanging around the north outflow since October 12th, a Ruddy Duck in Cell 1, and a couple of Ospreys. Two of our most interesting sightings involved very common species: a drake Blue-winged Teal with odd markings on its head (photo) and an unusually colorful male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (photo), both photographed by Clearwater Audubon’s Dale Goebel.

When I checked last week, La Chua Trail was still closed beyond the boardwalk due to flooding. Hopefully the water level will fall and the trail will dry out, but on the other hand this may be an unintended but disastrous consequence of the sheetflow restoration and the Prairie’s best trail may be closed for good.

There haven’t been any new discoveries lately, mainly things that have already been seen:

Vaux’s Swifts were back in their chimneys at Dauer Hall on the evening of the 9th, though the exact number was uncertain. Cuneyt Yilmaz reported 15 and Karl Miller 16. Karl noted that the swifts, “appeared at 5:16 and went in the chimney by 5:40.” They’ve been here for nearly two months now.

Karl Miller and Adam Kent both reported Nashville Warblers around the powerlines west of Chapmans Pond on the 10th. Trina Anderson saw two there on the 7th, “brighter one photographed north of small overgrown ponds near power line, duller one seen near pond where willow is.” On the 1st Adam Zions, birding at the west end of Chapmans, saw both Nashvilles, a Wilson’s Warbler (near the pond in the woods just east of the power lines), an Indigo Bunting, and a Painted Bunting. I especially liked his eBird description of the Painted: “Plumage colored as if a Skittles package was opened and poured on a passerine. Absolute handsome bird. Purple/blue head with red eyering; neon green mantle; bright pink-red throat and undersides heading up onto rump. Observed just west of powerline along underbrush by raised berm area.”

A handsome drake Redhead – Pat Burns refers to him as a “stud muffin” – has been at the Hague Dairy since at least November 29th; it was most recently reported by Trina Anderson on January 10th. Lloyd Davis posted a nice photo in his eBird checklist from the 4th: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26671536

The Lesser Black-backed Gull has only been reported a few times. It was found on the Christmas Count on the 20th and seen by several of us from the Windsor boat ramp on the following morning. Since then I’ve heard of only two sightings, both from Palm Point: Dotty Robbins eBirded it on the 29th and Bob Carroll saw it on the 2nd. Mike Manetz and I spent half an hour scanning from Palm Point on a windy January 5th, but we saw only Ring-billed Gulls in addition to the flock of 40 Bonaparte’s Gulls fluttering right off the Point.

Peter Polshek emailed on the afternoon of the 10th to report a Common Loon in the pond beside North Florida Regional Medical Center.

The fall migration of Sandhill Cranes is still underway, apparently. Donny Griffin reported two southbound flocks, one of 50 and one of 75, going over the Osceola National Forest in the early afternoon of the 10th.

An interesting taxonomic note: to commemorate the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” the AOU has changed the name of the Carolina Wren to the Kylo Wren. (I’m still waiting for someone to laugh at that. See also https://twitter.com/kylor3n?lang=en )

This Tuesday, January 12th, at 6:30 p.m., Alachua County birding’s power couple Gina and Adam Kent will present a program on “The Imperiled Birds of Central Florida.” Gina is a field biologist with Avian Research and Conservation who’s done hands-on work with a number of imperiled species (Swallow-tailed Kite, Short-tailed Hawk, White-crowned Pigeon, Reddish Egret, etc.), while Adam is an ex-president of the Florida Ornithological Society. The presentation will take place at the Prairie Creek Lodge at 7204 SE County Road 234, a very nice place you should visit (so why not this Tuesday at 6:30?): http://alachuaconservationtrust.org/index.php?/alachua_v2/Prairie_Creek_Lodge “Come join us to learn about some of these fascinating rare and imperiled species that can be found within a few hours’ drive of Gainesville. Why are there so many rare birds in Florida?What is the difference between a rare and an imperiled species? In addition to a half dozen federally Threatened and Endangered species, we’ll also talk about birds listed as imperiled by other agencies and organizations. We’ll discuss factors that contribute to the scarcity of these birds, what’s being done to protect them now, and top it off with some conservations success stories. Come learn what you can do to help!”

Hey, did you know that the Alachua Audubon Society field trip schedule was online? There’s, like, so much! https://alachuaaudubon.org/classes-field-trips/

Remember to send me your contact information if you’ve got a hummingbird you’d like Fred Bassett to band.

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

Remember that Alachua Audubon leads a Sweetwater Wetlands Park walk every Wednesday morning. We’ll meet at the shelter just off the parking lot at 8:30 a.m. on January 6th for the first Wednesday Wetlands Walk of 2016.

Also, mark your calendars for Adam and Gina Kent’s talk on “Imperiled Birds of Central Florida” next Tuesday, January 12th. More details here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/programs/

The Brown Creeper found at the Tuscawilla Prairie on the Christmas Count is still there, though it’s mostly hanging around the parking lot at the Native American Heritage Preserve north of the road. Dalcio Dacol posted an excellent photo in his eBird checklist from the 4th: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26674039

The Vaux’s Swifts are still here, though they’re not perfectly reliable. Visiting Clay County birder Steve Raduns reported 16 on the 2nd, but Mike Manetz didn’t see any between 4:30 and dark on the 3rd. On the 4th, however, they were back, and visiting Tennessee birder Thomas McNeil posted the following note on his eBird checklist: “Appeared overhead at 5:47 pm. They circled for a few minutes and dropped into the right chimney. I attempted cellphone videos. The phone playback of the two separate videos appears to show 17 birds going into the chimney (although I could have missed a bird coming back out). My wife counted 16 (don’t ever argue with your wife).”

On the 2nd, writes Bob Carroll, “I spent a delightful 90 minutes in a slight, on-again off-again drizzle at Palm Point from about 4:00 to about 5:30. The delightful part had a lot to do with about 40 Bonaparte’s Gulls that spent the entire time just off the Point feeding from right to left and then circling back. They were fun to watch. Periodically another group of larger gulls circled in to check out the activity. Most were Ring-billed Gulls, but there were also at least one Laughing Gull and one Herring Gull among them. Then just about 5:15 another gull flew over that I believe was the Lesser Black-backed Gull. Fortunately, it circled for a couple of minutes before heading north. Everything I saw matched the photos you’ve posted, especially the pale ring on the nape, the extensive black on the upper wings, black bill, wide black band at the end of the tail and what seemed to be a smudgy rump. Because of the rain, I didn’t have my camera out, so I got no photos. Still, I’ve never had a five-gull day in Alachua County, so it was a great way to start the year.”

Harry Jones saw two American Redstarts at Bolen Bluff on the 4th, as well as a Wilson’s Warbler. The Wilson’s is the fifth of the winter; Adam Zions had two at Cones Dike on the 2nd, there’s been one at Chapmans Pond since the 14th, and Scott Robinson saw one at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens on the CBC. And at least one Nashville Warbler is still hanging around the west side of Chapmans Pond, seen most recently on the 4th by Lloyd Davis. Mike Manetz got a couple of photos on the 2nd and embedded them in his eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26609816

Summer Tanagers are wintering around Gainesville in unprecedented numbers. Just for the sake of comparison, between 1969 and 2005 a grand total of 13 or 14 Summer Tanagers were reported wintering in Gainesville. That’s 13 or 14 over the course of 46 winters – whereas 11 or 12 were reported in the past month!

Sandhill Crane numbers were pretty low on the Christmas Bird Count, but maybe that’s because most of the birds were dawdling up north. On the afternoon of the 1st Ron Robinson saw several groups flying south over his place at the western edge of Gainesville, and on the 2nd Donny Griffin saw cranes going over the Osceola National Forest. If these birds are just now arriving, it’s by far the latest fall migration I’ve ever heard about.

By contrast, it’s my impression that Cedar Waxwings are early this winter. Normally they start building up in January and peak from February through April. But they’re already being seen in large numbers all across town. Sam Ewing saw a flock of 1,000 near Shands Hospital on the 3rd.

We’ve got some unfinished 2015 business to attend to. First, fourteen birders tallied 200 or more species in Alachua County in 2015:

Mike Manetz 240 (ties the fourth-highest total ever; Mike also owns first place, with 255 in 2012, and he’s twice gotten 241, once in 2000 and again in 2013)
John Hintermister 232 (sixth-highest total ever)
Rex Rowan 225
Adam Zions 224
Lloyd Davis 223
Debbie Segal 217
Matt O’Sullivan 213
Howard Adams 210
Trina Anderson 209 (tie)
Sam Ewing 209
Andy Kratter 204
Jennifer Donsky 203
Jonathan Mays 202
Barbara Shea 201

Congratulations, all! And we’re off to a good start in 2016, with Lloyd Davis and Adam Zions vying for first place with 83 species each as of the 3rd.

Among Alachua County birders, here are the ten largest Florida state year lists for 2015:

Lloyd Davis 304 (tie)
John Hintermister 304
Adam Zions 303
Mike Manetz 287
Jonathan Mays 277 (three-way tie)
Matt O’Sullivan 277
Debbie Segal 277
Phil Laipis 272 (tie)
Charlene Leonard 272
Adam Kent 267

Every year Adam Zions comes up with his list of Top Ten Birds of the Year. Here’s this year’s edition. Take it away, Adam:

Another year has passed and the earth has nearly made another complete revolution around our brightest source of light. You know what it means. Time to figure out the Top 10 Most Intriguing Birds observed in Alachua County for 2015. And here I thought recent years proved difficult to determine this list. 2015 may yet be the most difficult year for me since I’ve moved up here.

Here are my candidates in taxonomic order (please feel free to add any I may have overlooked):
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Black Scoter
Purple (Gray-headed) Swamphen (for better or worse)
Red-necked Phalarope
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Groove-billed Ani
Vaux’s Swift
Alder Flycatcher
Shiny Cowbird
Bullock’s Oriole

Others which didn’t make the above list (and it speaks to how many great birds passed through the county this year), but which are nonetheless excellent observations in themselves for the county:
Greater White-fronted Goose
Red-breasted Merganser
Magnificent Frigatebird
White-faced Ibis
Whooping Crane
American Avocet
Least Tern
Vermilion Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
The Cave and Cliff Swallow combo (right next to each other) which Mike Manetz found
Winter Wren
Canada Warbler
Lark Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Western Tanager
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Bronzed Cowbird
Purple Finch

Thanks, Adam. Please submit your votes for Ten Best Birds of 2015 and I’ll post the winners in a future email.

See you at Sweetwater on Wednesday morning and at Prairie Creek Lodge for Adam and Gina’s talk on the 12th.