Author: Rex Rowan

The Ruff seems to be ranging around the southeastern section of Newnans Lake today. Initially it was at the mouth of Prairie Creek and visible with a scope from Powers Park, but around mid-morning the Ewings (Dean, Ben, and Sam) saw it flush in response to a Bald Eagle and fly north. At 10:30 Glenn Price got this great photo “more towards the Windsor boat ramp”: http://www.raptorcaptor.com/Nature/Recent/i-5VnqxtM/A

Early this afternoon Mitch Walters had his own Ruff tale to tell: “Couldn’t resist, had to get in on this Ruff action. I was just there with Andy Kratter, Adam Kent, and Co. at Powers Park. At first I brought my scope, saw Andy and a couple of others out there on their kayaks getting REALLY close to the bird. I then texted Andy if I could borrow his kayak to take some shots of the bird. To my surprise he said YES. So I rushed back to my house, grabbed my camera gear and returned to Powers where I swapped with Andy. It got overcast, so I had to take my ISO to about 1000-1250, so a little grainy. Glad I didn’t scare it off, I was so nervous I would do that and upset all the spectators (because at one point the birds did flush for some reason, but I swear it wasn’t me). But wow, what a bird and what an experience!! Thanks Andy for the kayak.” One of Mitch’s outstanding photos shows the extent of the iridescence; it runs from the nape to the upper breast. This is one studly Ruff: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/33436404323/in/dateposted-public/

Since we’re on the topic of shorebirds, Mike Manetz found 12 species at the end of the La Chua Trail this morning, the most notable being 5 Stilt Sandpipers, a White-rumped Sandpiper, a Semipalmated Plover, and a Semipalmated Sandpiper. Lloyd Davis photographed two Semipalmated Plovers (originally found by Jennifer Donsky) on the 19th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/34245627205/in/dateposted-public/

Still, yes, still on the topic of shorebirds, Mike writes, “Ran into Lloyd today and apparently the other day he made it all the way out Hatchet Creek to the north end on foot, past the old decayed pilings. He said there was mud out there, but no shorebirds. With us missing the predicted rain yesterday and today, and very little predicted the rest of the week, both Newnans and La Chua could get much more interesting.” Back in 2000 and 2012, the trail following Hatchet Creek out to the lakefront was well trodden, and many great birds were found out there, including first-county-record Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, and Hudsonian Godwit, and one of the county’s four Buff-breasted Sandpipers. The parking area – unfortunately gated by the St. Johns River Water Management District – is shown on this map. It’s on the east side of State Road 26 a little south of the junction with County Road 222. (Note that this is NOT the same place as Gum Root Park.) Park as best you can near the gate, follow the trail in to the open area, cut left and continue past the picnic shelter, do NOT cross the bridge (also marked on the map), and follow the creek all the way out to the lake. Keep your eyes and ears open for Acadian Flycatchers and Prothonotary Warblers, both of which nest out there.

(Of course now that I’ve devoted all this time to shorebirds, it’ll rain like crazy for the next week.)

Mike also found 60 Bobolinks out at the end of La Chua this morning. They should be passing through for another three or four weeks, unless the drought has affected the Southern Wild Rice that they feed on. They can often be seen from fairly close range at Sweetwater Wetlands Park.

This weekend’s field trips were, well … not entirely worth attending. Saturday’s Cedar Key trip didn’t lay eyes on a single tanager, bunting, grosbeak, cuckoo, or oriole. We saw only six warbler species, three of them spring migrants. We did stumble across a mixed flock of shorebirds – Short-billed Dowitchers, Dunlin, Sanderlings, Ruddy Turnstones, Least Sandpipers, Spotted Sandpiper – which we ogled from point-blank range at the Old Fenimore Mill condos. But there was little else to look at, and by the time we got to the State Museum half of our participants had gone home. Their departure satisfied the birding gods, who, having received their sacrifice, finally yielded up a few birds: a Prairie Warbler, male and female Blackpoll Warblers, male and female Cape May Warblers, and two Red-breasted Nuthatches. (Thanks to Ching-tzu Huang for the photos!)

Sunday’s field trip to Kanapaha Botanical Gardens also started out unpromising, but then picked up. Mike Manetz wrote, “Fairly slow until we came upon a tall tree called silky oak which was flowering and loaded with insects. In that tree we had four Cape May, a Blackpoll, two Palms and a Parula, all fairly in the open. The tree is not far from the garden house, going out the exit to the right.” Mike’s trip nearly did better in that one tree than we did in four hours at Cedar Key!

Bubba Scales has been having fun with his Go Pro video camera. He sets it up near a feeder or birdbath and later views the footage and edits it down to a video. Here’s one that shows a Cape May Warbler and a Gray Catbird coming to a jelly feeder in NW Gainesville on the 21st: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQWEcwbXf0E&feature=youtu.be

And here’s one of a male Painted Bunting in his SE Gainesville back yard on the 9th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nfCq69UFSc

And speaking of pretty birds, even pretty birds that aren’t here any more, I just discovered two great photos of this winter’s Scissor-tailed Flycatcher by Mitch Walters:

Yesterday afternoon Cindy Boyd emailed that she could see the Ruff with a scope from the Powers Park pier, “pretty much right at the mouth of Prairie Creek” (if you’re standing at the end of the pier looking straight out at the lake, Prairie Creek is off to your right). This morning Dave Gagne called to say that it’s still there, visible with a spotting scope.

Something that Matt Bruce and I didn’t see when we discovered the bird, which others have noticed since, is the beautiful iridescence on the side of the bird’s neck, visible in this Jonathan Mays photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmays/34187987465/in/datetaken/

You won’t be able to see the iridescence from Powers Park, but if you don’t have a boat it’s your best bet for seeing the Ruff.

It happens regularly that one or two Mississippi Kites are reported before mid-April, but the majority tend to wait till the second half of the month to move in. Most show up after April 20th, making them one of our latest arrivals. Carol Wooley reported one at the western edge of Gainesville during the first weekend of March and Cindy Boyd saw one in east Gainesville on March 31st, but there were no more sightings until one appeared on its customary perch in a pine tree in Trina Anderson’s SW Gainesville yard on April 11th. Four more were seen over the next eight days, and then six showed up on the 20th. So they’re here on schedule, and anyone who regularly watches the sky over the next week is likely to spot one.

Migrant shorebirds are arriving. Jennifer Donsky found three Semipalmated Plovers at La Chua Trail on the 19th. Matt Bruce and I saw a Semipalmated Sandpiper at Newnans Lake on the 21st, and on the same date Mike Manetz found a White-rumped Sandpiper – an early record for the county by four days – at La Chua. And you might have heard something about a Ruff. As I told you, Matt got better photos of the Ruff than I did: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7553931@N02/33370716843/in/datetaken/

While Mike Manetz was walking out La Chua on the 21st he also saw eight male Bobolinks.

One of Bubba Scales’s Wild Birds Unlimited customers informed him that a trio of Cape May Warblers had been coming to her grape jelly feeder since the 17th. Bubba visited on the 21st and confirmed the ID.

Still no Blackpoll Warblers. If you’re working on a county year list, you want to make a special effort to see Cape May, Blackpoll, and Bobolink during spring migration, because they’re not easy to find in fall.

Scott Robinson spotted a Scarlet Tanager at Split Rock Park on the 9th and found it still there on the 15th.

Matt Bruce heard an Acadian Flycatcher singing from a swampy area near Lake Lochloosa on the 8th.

Karl Miller reported a Red-breasted Nuthatch at Swallowtail Farm on the 8th. It looked for a while like we were going to have another invasion winter, with two reported in October and two more in November, but then they dried up. Two wintered at Cedar Key, and they’re still being seen, so we’ll look for them on Saturday’s field trip.

Every morning on his way to work, Tom Webber checks out the American Kestrel nest across 8th Avenue from the Gainesville Police Department. Lately he’s been seeing only “the tip of the female’s tail in the entrance to the nest cavity,” which suggests that she’s still incubating.

On the afternoon of the 20th Laura Predny wrote, “The Swallow-tailed kites over Tuscawilla Preserve are multiplying. Today I am counting 14. I might be off by 1 or 2, but at least a dozen. They’re putting on a beautiful show. It can probably be viewed best at Thrasher Park. They’ve been out there most afternoons lately.” Thrasher Park (AKA the entrance to Tuscawilla Preserve) is across from the Native American Heritage Preserve in Micanopy. Here’s a map: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1NfvCyXiSUddvfMWVcUjohqdrJxY&usp=sharing

Matt Bruce and I went kayaking on Newnans Lake this morning to see the congregations of shorebirds he’s photographed there before. We put in at Powers Park, headed over to the mouth of Prairie Creek, and started working our way north along the eastern shoreline. There were lots of Long-billed Dowitchers and Lesser Yellowlegs and Least Sandpipers, smaller numbers of Solitary Sandpipers, Greater Yellowlegs, and Killdeer, and a single Semipalmated Sandpiper. I was supposed to attend a presentation on tiger beetles by Jonathan Mays at noon, so as it neared 11:00 we gave some thought to turning around and heading back. But we figured we had just enough time to investigate the next cove to the north. And there we found a large shorebird with a black head, black breast, and black back, with black and gray and white mottling on the wing coverts and lower belly, and orange legs. It was Alachua County’s second-ever Ruff. The county’s first was also found at Newnans Lake during a period of low water, on January 12, 2000. It stuck around for two months. This one is a male coming into breeding plumage and en route to European nesting grounds, so it may not stick around quite as long.

The location was somewhere between half to two-thirds the distance from the mouth of Prairie Creek to Windsor. It *might* be possible to do it on foot (probably from Windsor), but you may end up having to walk part of the way in the woods. A kayak or canoe would be better, and it lets you get closer to the birds.

Matt got better pictures than I did, but here are two of mine, one showing Matt photographing the Ruff and one showing the bird itself.

 

Not long ago I predicted that Newnans Lake would be an excellent shorebird spot if the drought continued. Two days later – of course – we had heavy rain. I assumed that the shorebirds had been flooded out, but I was wrong. Matt Bruce, who originally discovered the shorebirds on the 1st, went back on the 14th and kayaked all the way around the lake. He found six shorebird species in the same place he saw them before, near the Prairie Creek inlet. They included 272 Long-billed Dowitchers, 107 Lesser Yellowlegs, 82 Least Sandpipers, 5 Black-necked Stilts, 2 Solitary Sandpipers, and 1 Greater Yellowlegs. His other sightings included two locally-rare Brown Pelicans, 176 American White Pelicans, and 11 Prothonotary Warblers. You can view his eBird checklist, with a lot of nice photos, here. He writes, “I was pleased to see that the water level was approximately the same as it was the last time I went out, despite last week’s rains. If you decide to take a kayak out, the best birding bang for your paddling buck would be to put in at Powers Park and head straight for the mouth of Prairie Creek. The largest concentration of shorebirds is in this area. You should see several Prothonotary Warblers if you go in the morning. Also, the American White Pelicans frequent this area. If you paddle a little farther north, along the eastern shore of the lake, you will see smaller concentrations of shorebirds and likely some Bonaparte’s Gulls – one yesterday was in full breeding plumage. The Brown Pelicans, however, were all the way on the far north end of the lake.”

The Swainson’s Warbler at Loblolly was last reported to eBird on the 13th. Geoff Parks saw it at 10:30 in the morning, “right along the east side of the boardwalk, maybe 75 meters north of the marked spot where others have seen it.” But when Dean Ewing went looking for it at 6 p.m., “it was right at the marked spot on the boardwalk but 20 feet off feeding behind a small palmetto. Found by listening for the rustling sound as it turned over leaves. It trembled and shook its body as it fed, a behavior that must aid it in stirring up insects” (this trembling, noted by several birders, is characteristic of the species, and Cornell’s Birds of North America came to the same conclusion as Dean: “Birds also exhibit ‘pattering’ or rapid vibration of the feet when foraging, which may help flush prey items, and contributes to the impression of an erratic gait”). I don’t know if anyone has been looking for this bird since then. If it moved on after the 13th, its six days’ visit makes it the second-longest-staying Swainson’s in the county’s history. Only one stayed longer, a bird that Reed Noss found singing on territory at San Felasco Hammock on June 10, June 13, and June 18, 1986 (no followup on this bird was ever reported). Did I ever link to Glenn Price’s photo of the bird singing in response to a tape on April 9th? Shame on me. Here it is.

Elizabeth Martin reported a Bay-breasted Warbler near the first trail split (if you go right at the kiosk) at San Felasco Hammock’s Blue/Yellow Trail on the 8th. It’s improbable for three reasons: (1.) it’s the only report from Florida so far this year, (2.) it’s rare for Alachua County in spring (only two previous records, both in late April), and (3.) it’s six days prior to the earliest ever recorded in Florida according to Stevenson and Anderson’s The Birdlife of Florida (published in 1994). On the other hand, her description was spot on: “Saw a bird with an extensive amount of cinnamon/rusty color on throat and flanks of breast. The front part of the face that was seen was all black (I could only see the underside of the bird and just a little of the side to see the front of the face). There was no yellow color seen on the face of this bird from the angle I viewed it. The rest of breast and belly appeared light cream/white in color, and the edges of the wings had some white feathers that appeared could be the beginning of wing bars amidst the dark color of the wing.” You have to weigh the improbabilities against the actual evidence. I can’t think of anything else fitting that description. Can you? If you can, please let me know!

Painted Buntings are coming through. Adam Kent and I walked the East Trail at Newnans Lake State Forest on the 15th and found a male perched in a pine tree. That evening Adam was sitting on his porch with wife Gina and Chris Burney and they spotted Adam’s second male Painted Bunting of the day. Bubba Scales had a male in his yard on the 7th, 8th, and 9th, Trina Anderson found a male at Chapmans Pond on the 12th, and Trina and Barbara Shea reported a female at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 14th.

Other migrants:

The first Worm-eating Warbler of the spring was seen by Keith Collingwood in his Melrose yard on the 3rd. Since then additional birds have been reported regularly, at ten additional sites.

The summer’s first Yellow-billed Cuckoo was calling at John Hintermister’s place north of Gainesville on the 4th and 5th. Only three additional birds have been seen since then.

Our first Black-throated Blue, not counting the one that wintered at Bubba and Ingrid Scales’s place (still there on April 12th), was reported by Lloyd Davis at San Felasco Hammock on the 8th. No more were seen until this morning, when single birds were reported from two other sites.

On the 8th Laura Gaudette photographed a Canada Goose on Newnans Lake. In a birding report last July I noted that “of the 13 more-or-less credible sightings in Alachua County since 2000, seven took place between March 19th and April 14th, which suggests a spring migratory movement.” This makes eight out of 14.

Felicia Lee reports that this morning’s Alachua Audubon field trip along the La Chua Trail saw the season’s first Bobolink, a male “flying across the trail near the observation platform.” Just one day shy of the early record for Alachua County.

No Cape Mays or Blackpolls yet. But you should keep an eye out, because last year’s spring migration peaked between April 15th and April 23rd.

I was wrong about the location of the Swainson’s Warbler found by Ben Ewing on the evening of the 7th. Scott Robinson, Lloyd Davis, Will Sexton, and I showed up at the south end of NW 25th Terrace, and spent about twenty minutes birding back and forth along the boardwalk. Then Ben Ewing rolled up on his bike. “Hi, Ben!” we said, “Thanks for discovering this great bird. But we can’t find it!” And Ben said, “That’s because you’re on the wrong boardwalk.”

So we followed the boardwalk down to the sidewalk on NW 8th Avenue and went west about 200 yards. There we turned north onto another boardwalk, and after 75 yards or so we saw a plastic bottle jammed into the fence below the railing on the left side, and a wide piece of tape. And on the ground just below the tape – put there by Dean and Sam Ewing – was the Swainson’s Warbler, walking around turning over dead leaves as Swainson’s tend to do. All of us got excellent looks. It was a county lifer for Lloyd and Scott, and a lifer-lifer for Will.

Maybe it’ll be there tomorrow. Or maybe not. This was the 29th Swainson’s Warbler for Alachua County. Of those, 10 have been in spring (3 April-30 April, with one doubtful record from 10 May 1980), 2 have been in summer, and 17 have been in fall (8 August-21 October, about half of those between 10 September-30 September). I called Mike Manetz to tell him about the bird, and he said – with a confidence I’ll never possess – “I’ll get it in fall.” And he might. He saw two last fall. But prior to 2016, the three last fall sightings came in August 2010, August 2009, and October 2004. So I ran out to have a look, just to be on the safe side.

Lloyd Davis photographed a Cliff Swallow at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 7th, sitting on a fence among Tree Swallows of various plumages: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/33773783841/in/dateposted-public/

(By the way, if you go to Sweetwater, watch out for Killdeer nests along the trail and alert the rangers if you find one so they can rope it off.)

Peter Polshek found a Northern Waterthrush at San Felasco on the 4th, on the trails south of Millhopper Road.

Grace Kiltie spotted two Blue Grosbeaks, the first of the spring, at her SW Gainesville feeder on the 2nd.

As I got out of my car in the La Chua parking lot on the 31st, I heard a towhee calling “tweet” repeatedly from the wild plums just before the bike trail. I didn’t remember ever seeing a towhee in that area before, and wondering if it was a migrant red-eyed towhee I hurried down to see it. As I neared the plum, I heard a little preliminary “chk” before each “tweet” and realized that I was listening, not to a towhee, but to a White-eyed Vireo. He’d done the call 8-10 times without breaking into a vireo song. I found him and watched him for a few minutes, but he didn’t do it again, so I walked on. I got as far as the composting toilet when he started again. I immediately turned back, counting his tweets as I went. There were 14 total, but I was only close enough to hear the preliminary “chk” during the last two. I watched him for another five minutes as he foraged around, but he never made another tweet, and he never, during all the time I was in earshot, gave a typical song.

Writing a humorous song is not easy. Except, apparently, for Mike Manetz (author of the famed “Newnans Lake limericks”), because this is a very funny song: https://soundcloud.com/manetzma/i-like-eggs-talkin-chicken-blues

The Alachua Audubon Society will have its annual picnic on Wednesday, April 12th. All are invited. It will be held at Bubba and Ingrid Scales’s house at 3002 SW 1st Way, Gainesville, located in the Colclough Hills neighborhood between south Main Street and Williston Road (look for the AAS signs). Bring some food to share and a drink of choice, and enjoy visiting with Alachua Audubon members and the Board of Directors. This will be a fun gathering and an opportunity to share our more recent spring migration observations.

And make plans to attend the Florida Ornithological Society meeting on the weekend of April 21-23. Adam Kent writes, “It’s going to be a very fun event with keynote speakers Dr. Marianne Korosy from Audubon Florida and Dr. John Fitzpatrick from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology talking about citizen science. There will be other speakers on Saturday afternoon, a citizen science panel, and lots of excellent field trips to great spring migration birding sites sites. Plus, there’s no way you can beat the registration or banquet prices!” More information here: http://www.fosbirds.org/sites/default/files/spring_2017_registration.pdf

Ten minutes ago I got an email from Ben Ewing: “I found a Swainson’s Warbler off the boardwalk between 8th and 16th Ave near our place. It was right off the west side of the boardwalk, 75 yards or so north of 8th Avenue, foraging on the ground. I put a plastic bottle through the fence next to where it was. The bird was still there when we left 15 minutes ago. I attached a couple of dad’s pictures.”

To be clear about the location: from NW 16th Avenue turn south on NW 25th Terrace and go all the way down. The boardwalk is at the end of the road.

The sun won’t set for another hour and a half. Go get it!

Nice work, Ben (the find) and Dean (the photos)!

You heard it here first! Or second! Or maybe fifth! Oh well. Anyway, the water level in Newnans Lake is falling, as it did in 1999-2000 and again in 2012. If it continues to do so, and the shorebirds take advantage of it as they did in 2000 – we had 30 shorebird species at the lake between January and September that year – then this could be a very interesting April and May. On the 1st Matt Bruce kayaked out Prairie Creek into the lake and paddled north toward the Windsor boat ramp. He ended up with 7 shorebird species: 340 Long-billed Dowitchers (by far the largest count of this species ever recorded in Alachua County), 105 Lesser Yellowlegs, 20 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Solitary Sandpipers (the spring’s first), 3 Black-necked Stilts, 40 Least Sandpipers, and 1 Stilt Sandpiper. If the water level continues to drop, we should be able to walk east along the shoreline from Powers Park and south from the Windsor boat ramp and tally waders and shorebirds by the hundreds. It doesn’t get much more exciting for a birder in Alachua County than low water at Newnans Lake. Here are a few photos from May 2012 to give an idea of what it’s like:

Anyway, I’m telling you so you’ll be prepared. It could be good.

On the 31st Howard Adams spotted the spring’s first Short-tailed Hawk, a dark-morph bird flying over the Prairie Creek bridge on Hawthorne Road. Hard to believe that they used to be rare. The county’s first-ever was shot on February 27, 1926, and it was almost 70 years before the second one showed up. There were five reports throughout the 90s; contrast that with the single month of June 2015, when at least three individual birds were seen during The June Challenge.

Mike Manetz and Brad Hall found two Hairy Woodpeckers at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve on the 2nd, along the Red Loop, “in the open patch of turkey oak just beyond the little blue camping ahead sign.”

Grace Kiltie welcomed a Nashville Warbler to her SW Gainesville birdbath on the 2nd.

Jennifer Donsky saw a Cliff Swallow at the Hague Dairy on the 1st.

Summer Tanagers took their sweet time getting here. The spring’s first was seen by Scott Robinson at Split Rock Park on the 1st, and two others were reported at different sites on the 2nd.

The spring’s first Prothonotary Warblers showed up on the 30th, one in John Hintermister’s yard north of Gainesville and one at Keith Collingswood’s place in Melrose.

The first Chimney Swifts of the year showed up at UF’s Dauer Hall chimneys on the 29th, as witnessed by Richard Stanton. Unless the first was a single bird seen by Pamela Graber at Dauer Hall on the 22nd. She reported it to eBird as a Vaux’s Swift, but didn’t explain how she made her ID. Prior to that, the Vaux’s had last been reported on the 9th.

Craig Parenteau saw the first Eastern Kingbird of the year on March 28th near his place on the western edge of Gainesville.

Darrell Hartman reported the season’s first Yellow-crowned Night-Heron at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 27th. Away from salt water, I see these reported most often from rivers, but we usually have one or two pairs that nest around Paynes Prairie.

JoAnne Russo saw a Roseate Spoonbill at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 15th, the earliest spring visitor I’ve ever heard of. Apparently it hasn’t been spotted since.

On February 5th, Geoff Parks saw a pair of American Kestrels at the Osprey nesting post across 8th Avenue from the Gainesville Police Department. I was doubtful that it meant anything; in Alachua County, breeding kestrels keep to wide open spaces like the pastureland along the upland ridge running from High Springs to Archer, and that’s been the case for decades. But last year on March 6th a Pennsylvania birder named Cynthia Lukyanenko, cooling her heels at the Gainesville airport (“At least flight delays allow for a little extra birding”), saw something that no one had reported inside the city limits since the 1950s or 60s: “There’s a pair nesting in the glass enclosure of one of the outdoor lights near gate 1. Visible from the passenger area of the terminal. One was sitting on the nest, and the other arrived shortly thereafter with what looked like a small lizard.” Karl Miller and I didn’t hear about it until mid-April – a month and a half after the report – and, not surprisingly, we saw no signs of nesting activity, though we did see one or more kestrels. The pair at the 8th Avenue pole, by contrast, have been under observation since Geoff’s original sighting. They’re occupying a nest cavity, and the female has been sitting in the cavity entrance being fed lizards by the male. Karl tells me that urban kestrels are common farther south, but this is the first for Alachua County. Or the second, if you count the pair at the airport.

You’ve probably seen your last Eastern Phoebe of the season. There, there.

I try to keep track of seasonal firsts, but a lot of them have flown in under the radar:

Howard Adams saw a Purple Gallinule at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 4th. Peter Polshek, Laura Gaudette, and JoAnne Russo saw two along the La Chua Trail on the 13th. Both sightings strike me as early for this species, which normally doesn’t show up until the last week of March. However it winters not far south of here – as far north as Lake County – so the warm winter may have lured a few of them into an early migration.

Peter, Laura, and JoAnne also saw the spring’s first Black-necked Stilt at La Chua on the 13th. Stilts have been reported steadily since, in numbers up to five.

Matt Bruce recorded the season’s first Red-eyed Vireo at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens on the 19th. Two were seen or heard at two different locations on the 22nd, and four more at three additional locations on the 23rd. By the way, late March and early April are a good time to try for the vireo quartet at San Felasco Hammock: Red-eyed, White-eyed, Yellow-throated, and Blue-headed can all be heard singing in a single morning. Blue-headeds will be gone by the end of April.

And speaking of San Felasco, Tom Hoctor saw two Hooded Warblers, the season’s first, while walking the Yellow Trail at the Millhopper Road entrance on the 27th.

Still among the missing as of the 28th – though expected within the next week – are Summer Tanager, Chimney Swift, and Prothonotary Warbler. Blue Grosbeak and Orchard Oriole might also show up then, though they average a little later, with Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Acadian Flycatcher, and Eastern Wood-Pewee not usually getting here until mid-April, and most of the Mississippi Kites arriving after April 20th.

Loon watching has been rather slow so far, though last Sunday’s field trip counted 15 or 16 flying north over the Mill Creek Preserve. According to the data that Andy Kratter has accumulated over the past 14 years, the best time for observing loons over Gainesville is 65-99 minutes after sunrise, and sunrise at Cedar Key over the next week (March 29-April 5), which should encompass the peak of loon migration, will range from 7:25 to 7:16. So if my arithmetic is right, prime time for loon-watching in Gainesville during the next week will range from 8:30-9:04 on the 29th to 8:21-8:57 on the 5th. Weather permitting, of course, set up a chair in the back yard, or any open place that faces west, and watch for big white-bellied, black-headed birds flying over. If you’d like to join me on Friday the 31st, I’ll be watching from Paynes Prairie’s US-441 observation platform starting at 8:00 a.m.

A pair of Fish Crows is nesting in a clump of pines one street over from my NE Gainesville yard. They’re notorious nest raiders, so it doesn’t bode well for the other birds in the neighborhood. Is anyone else seeing crows carrying nesting material or sitting on nests?

Saturday’s Alachua Audubon field trip to San Felasco Hammock will be led by Adam Kent. Meeting time and place here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/event/san-felasco-hammock-millhopper-road-entrance-3/?instance_id=565 As usual, Audubon will be sponsoring two field trips per weekend during the peak of spring migration, from Saturday, April 8th through Sunday, May 7th (excepting April 16th). And don’t forget our Wednesday Wetland Walks at Sweetwater Wetlands Park; just show up any Wednesday morning at 8:30 and there should be a field trip getting ready to go.

The Native Plant Sale is coming up at Morningside Nature Center. Native Plant Society and Friends of Nature Parks members get the first crack at what’s available on Friday, April 14th, while non-members relegated to Saturday, April 15th. What a good reason to join these fine organizations! More information at the Parks & Recreation web site: http://www.cityofgainesville.org/ParksRecreationCulturalAffairs/NaturalResourcesandPrograms/NatureHeritageEvents.aspx

Reminder: the Alligator Lake Festival in Lake City will take place on Saturday, April 8th: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4E7iNkfaDyUNU55aFgwaUhxeWxXTG8xWjJDWGc2dGhMN3pv/view?usp=sharing
The festival schedule looks like this:
8:00 – Bird Walk
10:00 – Kids’ Bird Walk
11:00 – Butterflies with Mark Minno
12:00 – Meet the Eagle
1:00 – Butterflies with Marc Minno
3:00 – Time to go home
Pat Burns reported two White-faced Ibises at Alligator Lake on the 28th. Maybe they’ll stick around.

Though a couple of American Redstarts seem to have wintered here – one at the Hague Dairy and one at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens – the spring’s first seems to have been one that Jennifer Donsky found at Depot Park on the 20th.

Prairie Warblers are also moving through. The one Karl Miller saw at the Wildlife Research Center on the 10th was followed by one that Jonathan Mays saw at La Chua on the 16th, one that Howard Adams saw at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 22nd, and one that was singing in my neighbor’s NE Gainesville back yard this morning (the 23rd).

Indigo Buntings are moving in. Setting aside as a probable wintering bird one that Ken Spilios found along Sparrow Alley on February 14th, the spring’s first was a male that Carol Wooley photographed at her NW Gainesville feeder on March 7th. About eight more have been reported since.

I don’t normally expect Great Crested Flycatchers until the last week of March, but increasingly they’ve been showing up earlier. This year’s first was one that Matt Bruce heard vocalizing steadily for three minutes at Kanapaha Botanical Garden on the 19th. Jessica Hightower heard another calling for a minute at Newnans Lake State Forest on the 20th. eBird shows two additional reports on the 21st and eight more on the 22nd. So I think they’re here.

Summer Tanager, another species that normally shows up at the end of March, doesn’t seem to have arrived yet, though a few wintering birds are still around.

Chandler Robbins died on the 20th. He was the creator of the Breeding Bird Survey and the primary author of the Golden Guide (1966), the first field guide to compete with Peterson’s. The Golden Guide was a required text in my college ornithology class, and because it was a softcover that fit easily into my back pocket it was the one I took with me in the field during the first years of my birding career. It’s the only field guide to inspire a separate book devoted to its mistakes – Rich Stallcup’s Birds For Real (1985) – but Stallcup’s criticisms were aimed primarily at Arthur Singer’s illustrations (“Sprague’s Pipit: On page 257 it appears that maybe the specimen or photo used to paint the picture was the wrong species”) rather than Robbins’s text. Laura Erickson posted a nice remembrance of Robbins that combines her personal experience of Robbins’s great kindness with an account of his remarkable accomplishments. The photo of his binoculars is worth clicking the link all by itself: http://blog.lauraerickson.com/2017/03/chandler-robbins-19182017.html

Bob Carroll and I birded the Little Orange Creek Preserve on the 6th. It’s a nice place, and I expect it will be especially good in fall migration. As you follow the two-mile trail out, you’ve got marshy Little Orange Creek on your left and uplands (in the process of restoration) on your right. There are two observation towers along the way. A trail map is here (map on page 2 of the PDF) and our checklist for the morning is here. eBirders, please use the existing hotspot if you check it out yourself.

The Rise of the Hipster Birdwatcher, from London’s Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/rise-hipster-bird-watcher/  (I’ve always believed that I was cool before cool was cool.)

The UF College of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation sponsors an “Osprey Cam” overlooking an Osprey nest at the UF baseball field. On January 28th the Ospreys showed up at the nest site, and according to The Independent Florida Alligator, “The second egg came three days after the first one, which was conceived [?!] on March 9.” I suspect the reporter meant the egg was laid, rather than conceived (kids these days!). Anyway, you can watch the progress of the Ospreys here: http://www.wec.ufl.edu/extension/ospreycam/

If you’ve got Nandina AKA Heavenly Bamboo in your yard, you might consider removing it. It’s been implicated in the death of Cedar Waxwings: http://www.decaturish.com/2017/03/invasive-bushes-in-decatur-killing-cedar-waxwings/  (Thanks to Steve Hofstetter of the county’s Environmental Protection Department for alerting me to this.)

On Saturday morning you’ve got a tough choice. You can join Deena Mickelson and Alachua Audubon on a field trip to the Mill Creek Preserve. Or you can attend the Bird Walk and Gallery Talk, hosted by Ernesto Reyes, which is part of Bulla Cubana, “a celebration of arts and culture, promoting the exchange of ideas and inspiration between Cuba and the North Central Florida region.” The Bulla Cubana Bird Walk will begin at Sweetwater Wetlands Park at 7:30 a.m., and it will be followed by the Gallery Talk at 10:30. Cuban coffee will be served at the latter event. You need to make a reservation for Bulla Cubana here. If you’re a competent birder and you’d like to help Ernesto guide people around Sweetwater, contact Bubba Scales by tomorrow night by emailing him at fodderwing@bellsouth.net

Put it on your calendar. Alligator Lake Festival in Lake City on Saturday, April 8th: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4E7iNkfaDyUNU55aFgwaUhxeWxXTG8xWjJDWGc2dGhMN3pv/view?usp=sharing
The festival schedule looks like this:
8:00 – Bird Walk
10:00 – Kids’ Bird Walk
11:00 – Butterflies with Mark Minno
12:00 –  Meet the Eagle
1:00 – Butterflies with Marc Minno
3:00 – Time to go home