Author: Rex Rowan

Andy Kratter was planning to begin his annual loon watch – code name Loonacy – on the 15th, but at 8:56 on the morning of the 11th I spotted a flock of seven northbound Common Loons flying over Sparrow Alley, and I think that’s nudged him into an early start. Most mornings between mid-March and mid-April (peaking around April Fools’ Day), you can see loons migrating over Gainesville beginning about an hour after sunrise. Nearly all are Common Loons, but of the seven Red-throated Loons seen in Alachua County over the years, two were spotted by Andy during his spring loon watches. If your yard has a fairly wide view of the western sky, you can do your own loon watch. Set up a lawn chair facing southwest at about 8:15 (Daylight Savings Time) and watch for black-headed, white-bellied birds flying north on pointed wings. For a photo of a flying loon and additional details of Andy’s loon watch, click this blog post from two years ago: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/62/loon-migration-over-gainesville/

Louisiana Waterthrushes are early migrants in both spring and fall, passing through mainly in March and July-August. We’ve had only two reports so far this spring: Karl Miller saw one at Barr Hammock’s Levy Lake Loop on the 5th and Mike Manetz saw one at San Felasco’s Moonshine Creek Trail on the 6th.

Another migrant warbler that begins its passage in March is the Prairie Warbler. Karl Miller saw one at the FWC Wildlife Lab on the edge of Paynes Prairie on the 10th. It might have been a wintering bird – a handful stick with us through the cold months every year – but it could just as easily have been a northbound transient. Start watching for them.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds reliably arrive in this area during the first week of March, but as of March 12th none have been reported to eBird (as I consult my review screen). One did visit Dick and Patty Bartlett’s SE Gainesville feeder on the 4th and as I was putting together this birding report on the morning of the 12th Andy Kratter emailed to report one at his SE Gainesville home.

The spring’s first Yellow-throated Vireos have shown up. Adam Zions found the season’s first at his SW Gainesville home on the 7th, and they’ve since been reported by Deena Mickelson at Mill Creek Preserve on the 8th, by Tom Webber at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve on the 9th, and by Anne Casella at San Felasco Hammock on the 11th. No Red-eyed Vireos yet, but they should be here any day.

Barbara Shea and I found at least 35 Rusty Blackbirds at Magnolia Parke on the early afternoon of the 12th. Lately the birds have been dividing their time between the wetland at the back of the property and the grassy parking medians in the commercial-medical area. Judging by past years, they won’t be here much longer.

The Vaux’s Swifts roosting at UF’s Dauer Hall stuck around into April last year; this year’s most recent report came on the 9th, when Alex Lamoreaux saw 3 -5 enter the chimneys between 7:34 and 8:00 (adjusted for Daylight Savings Time).

On the 11th I walked Sparrow Alley and the La Chua Trail with two excellent Jacksonville birders, Jeff Graham and Candice Davis. Along Sparrow Alley we were saddened to see Ospreys vainly attempting to nest on the metal power line stanchions. Supposedly nesting platforms will be erected at some point, but I suspect it will be too late for this season. At the end of the main trail we found the water all but vanished. Looking south toward the largest part of Alachua Lake we saw an enormous lawn with a narrow channel of water bordering it to one side, and looking north we saw rapidly-dwindling shallows in which we counted over a hundred shorebirds, including Least Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitchers, and two Dunlins. Other sightings of interest included the male Vermilion Flycatcher, pretty close to full adult plumage, and a flock of 12 American Pipits, rather late for this species. What we didn’t see was equally remarkable: no Sandhill Cranes at all, no Pied-billed Grebes, few ducks of any sort, few American Coots or Common Gallinules, few Wilson’s Snipe, few sparrows of any sort.

I mentioned in my last birding report that Paynes Prairie’s Whooping-Crane-in-residence had apparently been photographed on the Prairie as far back as 2013 and 2014. I sent the photos to FWC’s Tim Dellinger, who confirmed that it was the same bird and added, “I first tracked 1644 to Paynes Prairie in April 2009. She was there in 2010, 2011, and 2012 too.” I asked if she was one of the pair who hatched out (but could not raise) a pair of chicks in May 2010, and he replied, “No, she has never bred to our knowledge. Too few birds, and a very small number of those are males.” So she’s been visiting Paynes Prairie for eight of her eleven years. And she has a name of sorts: 1644. Did you see that she made the front page of the Gainesville Sun on the 11th? http://www.gainesville.com/news/20170310/whooping-crane-makes-surprise-appearance (Note that three of the four photos are by Gainesville birder Frank Goodwin.)

I ran into Kelly MacPherson of the county’s Environmental Protection Department at Publix the other day. She told me that Barr Hammock is scheduled to open in April. I’m not referring to the Levy Loop Trail, which opened in February 2013, but to the extensive forest trails immediately to the south, between Levy Lake and Ledwith Lake.

The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is asking the public to help them census the plants and animals in their Wildlife Management Areas. Watermelon Pond will be one of their more important ones. You take your smartphone or camera along with you, photograph what plants and animals you can – or in the case of birds make a sound recording – and submit the results here: http://floridanaturetrackers.com/florida-nature-trackers/projects/

Swallow-tailed Kites are here, a little earlier than normal. Deena Mickelson saw the region’s first over I-75 in Ocala on the 26th. Alachua County’s first of the spring were three that Phil Sandlin saw over his place at Archer on the 28th and two that Linda Hensley saw over her NW Gainesville home on the 3rd.

Swallows are here too: the first Barn of the spring was seen by Ben Ewing at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 2nd. By the 3rd, according to Lloyd Davis, there were 15. On the same day he tallied seven Northern Rough-winged Swallows at Sweetwater, and on the 4th he spotted a Cliff Swallow, by ten days an early-arrival record for the county. On the 5th Mike Manetz missed the Cliff, but saw a Bank Swallow, possibly the same one that Sidney Wade first noticed there on the 23rd.

Speaking of swallows, on the 4th I checked the I-75 / Williston Road overpass and found two Barn Swallows working on nests. There are lots of old nests there, on the undersides of both the northbound and southbound lanes, but all are either north or south of the Williston Road traffic lanes; there are none directly above the road itself. Barn Swallows seem to nest under all, or nearly all, of Alachua County’s I-75 overpasses now. Little-known fact: They didn’t nest in Florida until the middle of the 20th century. The first nest was discovered in Pensacola in 1946, and Jack McLeod found the first in the peninsula inside a Paynes Prairie culvert in June 1971.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds usually show up during the first few days of March, just like Barn and Rough-winged Swallows, but as of the 5th the only eBird records I see for Alachua County are individuals that spent the winter.

Scott Robinson has had a Pine Siskin visiting his feeder in SW Gainesville since February 23rd.

Bob Palmer notified me that he had a Rose-breasted Grosbeak in his NW Gainesville yard from the 16th to the 23rd. Andy Kratter’s wasn’t seen after the 25th. So, to review the winter season: there was a one-day wonder in early December that was probably a tardy migrant; there was one that showed up in NW Gainesville on December 26th and remained for over two months, a legitimately wintering bird; and then there were two or three during the period from February 16th to February 25th, which makes no sense to me.

Speaking of wintering birds, the Black-throated Blue Warbler visiting Bubba Scales’s SE Gainesville yard since December 2nd was still there on March 1st.

The Whooping Crane that’s been present at Paynes Prairie since April moved over to Sweetwater Wetlands Park last week, sighted by a German birder on the 28th and photographed by Frank Goodwin on the 2nd while it was showing off: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/33206291626/in/datetaken/ Well I say it’s been here since April, but I’ve got photos of a Whooping Crane showing the same band combination (blue over silver on the left leg) from March 2014 and March 2013.

I saw a pair of thrashers carrying nest material into my backyard yaupon hedge on February 24th. The existing early egg date for Brown Thrasher in Alachua County was established by Oliver Austin, the former curator of birds at the FLMNH, who found a nest with three eggs in his SE Gainesville yard on March 14, 1970.

I hadn’t seen many Cedar Waxwings during December or January, but their numbers seem to have picked up during the last two or three weeks. Does that jibe with your own observations, o dear readers?

Extinction and “endlings,” from The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/what-do-you-call-the-last-of-a-species

The Acadia Birding Festival in Bar Harbor, Maine, is accepting registrations. They’ve made an enticing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxNl4QFvrlM&feature=youtu.be

The Audubon Society of Vermont has a good idea: pay farmers to accommodate the nesting season of Bobolinks by modifying their mowing schedules. If you like Bobolinks you may want to donate: “As Bobolinks begin their northward migration to Vermont, the April 1 deadline for donations for the 2017 Bobolink Project is fast approaching, with only 6 weeks left: http://www.bobolinkproject.com/. The number of farms accepted into the program depends entirely on how many donations we receive by April 1, when we start creating the contracts.”

This Saturday is Alachua Audubon’s Backyard Birding Tour, which will allow you to explore six Gainesville yards that have been highly successful at attracting birds. Get some ideas for your own place! It’s all self-guided. Audubon members, including me, will be present at each place to point birds out, and the homeowners will be on hand to answer any practical questions. Here are the details: https://alachuaaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/yard-tour.pdf

Although a very few Northern Parulas spend the winter with us, arriving residents usually show up and start singing at some point between February 20th and March 1st. They’re on schedule this year, with four birds reported between the 18th and the 21st, including a singing male that Scott Robinson found at San Felasco Hammock on the 19th – and then TEN were reported on the 22nd. So they’re here. Usually Yellow-throated Warblers begin singing at the same time as Northern Parulas, but this year they started early: Adam and Gina Kent heard one at their place in SE Gainesville on February 3rd and 15th, Andy Kratter heard another near his home in SE Gainesville (a couple of miles south of Adam and Gina) on the 8th, and Alex Lamoreaux heard a third at Powers Park on the 15th. I’ve always wondered whether the Yellow-throated Warblers that nest here are the same ones that winter here, and this suggests that they might be.

There have been three sightings of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks in Alachua County this winter. One has been visiting Karen Brown’s NW Gainesville feeder since December 26th (still present February 22nd). Andy Kratter saw one at his place in SE Gainesville on February 20th and 21st.  And Bubba Scales saw one at his birdbath in SE Gainesville on February 21st. There’s a possibility that the latter two sightings could involve the same bird, since Bubba lives about a mile WSW of Andy. This is about two months too early for the grosbeaks’ spring migration.

County Commissioner Mike Byerly got an excellent photo of our winter-resident Peregrine Falcon on the afternoon of the 13th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/32062203704/in/dateposted-public/  I’d forgotten that he has a degree in zoology and did grad work in ecology, qualities I like to see in a County Commissioner! This Peregrine is a banded bird, and in addition to the metal USFWS band it wears a blue (or green) band on the other leg. Dalcio Dacol reported it to the Bird Banding Lab, but their database turned up nothing. The falcon was most recently seen on the 20th by Lloyd Davis.

If you were to ask the dogwoods, it’s spring. After a trip to La Chua on the 21st I’m inclined to agree. Wild plums, wild cherries, and sugarberries were leafing out, and any number of early spring wildflowers were in bloom. And lots of alligators were basking along the banks of the canal – I stopped counting at 125. In other parts of the state, Swallow-tailed Kites are showing up, so our first of the year should be along in the next week or so. And keep your eyes open for Short-tailed Hawks as well; they usually arrive on North Florida nesting grounds at about this time (though they haven’t actually been confirmed nesting in Alachua County yet).

Loonacy will be starting in three weeks. If you don’t know what Loonacy is, here are some details: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/62/loon-migration-over-gainesville/

There are quite a number of proposals – and proposals is all they are, they haven’t been adopted – coming before the AOU Checklist Committee this year. Split Yellow-rumped Warbler into three species, split Willet into two, change the name of Ring-necked Duck to Ring-billed Duck, it’s a long list. The American Birding Association’s blog explains the proposals in two posts: Part One and Part Two.

A genealogically-minded cousin recently sent me a web page about a member of the Cellon family (pronounced SEE-lun), for whom San Felasco’s Cellon Creek is named. John Cellon was a Frenchman who established a 100-acre nursery “ten miles north of Gainesville” in the late 1830s. He lived there until his death in 1881 and was among the first to grow oranges in peninsular Florida. His son George moved to Dade County in 1900 and set up a nursery of his own, where he was the first person in North America to cultivate avocados and mangos. (The genealogical connection, in the unlikely event that you’re wondering, is that a sister of George’s married a Chesser, a distant cousin of mine.)

Remember the Backyard Birding Tour this Saturday!

Perhaps because we don’t normally see much gull variety along our shores, Florida has few gull experts. In fact, Michael Brothers of the Marine Science Center in Daytona Beach may be the only one in the state. Gulls can be absurdly difficult to identify. A single species of large gull – Herring Gull, for instance – can show a bewildering variety of plumages between the time it fledges and the time it achieves adulthood five years later, and in each of those plumages it can potentially be confused with several different species. It’s almost enough to make you ignore them altogether, just on principle. Yet because gulls tend to wander, finding a flock of gulls is often the first step in finding an exciting rarity, even a lifer. Mike Manetz was combing through a flock of Bonaparte’s Gulls resting on the mud near Powers Park one day in January 2000 when he found the county’s one-and-only Black-headed Gull. Michael Brothers often finds rarities like Glaucous Gull, Iceland Gull, Franklin’s Gull, and California Gull among the thousands and thousands of Herring Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, and Laughing Gulls that congregate at Daytona Beach Shores every winter afternoon. But how do you figure out which are which? A good first step would be to attend Michael’s presentation on Gull and Jaeger Identification at the Alachua Audubon Society program meeting at 6:30 p.m. this coming Tuesday, February 7th, at the Millhopper Library. And a good second step will be to attend the field trip that Michael will lead at Daytona Beach Shores on the afternoon of Saturday, February 11th, when you’ll have a chance to put into practice all the ID tips you’ll learn on Tuesday. Field trip participants will meet at the Target store at noon on Saturday. More information below:

Gull and Jaeger Identification program: https://alachuaaudubon.org/event/program-gull-and-jaeger-identification/?instance_id=593

Field trip to see gulls and terns and practice brand-new ID skills: https://alachuaaudubon.org/event/daytona-beach-shores-gulls-and-terns/?instance_id=551

Lloyd Davis discovered a Purple Swamphen (or Gray-headed Swamphen, as eBird calls it) under the powerlines at La Chua on the 28th. If this is one of the two that were seen periodically at Sweetwater Wetlands Park between November 17, 2015 and April 9, 2016, and if they were a mated pair, and if both of the birds have relocated to the Prairie, then we’ll probably be seeing lots and lots of swamphens before much longer. A lot of ifs, I know. Anyway, it’s been seen several times since then, as recently as the 31st.

While you’re looking for the swamphen, keep an eye out for the Peregrine Falcon and the two Vermilion Flycatchers hanging around the same area, the Peregrine usually perched on a powerline stanchion and the Vermilions fluttering around within a few feet of the water’s surface. Both were reported by Charlene Leonard on the 3rd.

Vaux’s Swifts are spending their second consecutive winter at Dauer Hall on the UF campus. As many as five birds have been seen in the evenings, entering the chimneys as early as 5:57 and as late as 6:18 during the past week (most recently by Scott Robinson on the 3rd). Two seen by Mike and Diana Manetz were associating with a flock of Tree Swallows at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the afternoon of the 30th, but Dauer Hall is considerably more reliable. If you need to know where it is, here’s a map.

The Dickcissel seems to be wandering widely around the boardwalk and the edge of Alachua Sink. Recent descriptions of its location include, “along waterway just beyond the boardwalk/trailer,” “feeding on ground across ditch,” and “in the shrubby tangle adjacent to the last covered area of the boardwalk before the trailer.” At least one observer thinks there are two. Bryan Tarbox saw it last, on the 29th.

The Dark-eyed Junco in Mike Manetz’s yard was still there on the 4th.

On January 14th Kenneth Dunaway took this photo of a Whooping Crane across CR-346 from Reddick Brothers Hardware in Micanopy: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/32666383656/in/dateposted-public/ This isn’t the same Whooping Crane that we’ve been seeing at Paynes Prairie since April. The Paynes Prairie bird is a ten-year-old female with a single blue band on its leg. The Micanopy bird is a one-year-old female with blue and yellow bands. Both birds are wild-hatched – offspring of cranes that were released into the wild, formed a pair bond, built a nest, laid eggs, and raised their young to adulthood. Tim Dellinger of FWC tells me that there are only three or four surviving wild-hatched birds in Florida. As of the 14th two of those were in Alachua County. Both came from nests in Lake County. We’ve only had one nest here in Alachua County, in spring 2010. Both of the young hatched, but neither survived.

Speaking of cranes, a lot of Sandhills left Gainesville on the 1st. I was leading the Wednesday Wetlands Walk at Sweetwater Wetlands Park, and a huge number flew overhead, circling and calling. I couldn’t count cranes and lead the field trip at the same time, because the departure extended over an hour and a half. I entered 2,000 in my eBird checklist, but there might have been 5,000 for all I know.

Speaking of spring, I’ve seen a lot of butterflies out and about during the last week: Red Admiral, Monarch, Queen, Ceraunus Blue, Sleepy Orange, Pearl Crescent, Cloudless Sulfur, and Orange-barred Sulfur. I don’t consider it to be spring, however, until I’ve seen my first swallowtail. Which I did, a Black Swallowtail, at the Newberry Cemetery on the 2nd. I also noticed today that Eastern Tent Caterpillars have started a tent in one of my backyard wild plums.

Don’t we wish: https://www.facebook.com/marilynmeadowsphotgraphy/videos/1736811679963230/

Did anyone find a pair of Nikon Monarch binoculars at the La Chua parking lot? Beverly Campbell of Tampa drove away on the 18th with hers on the bumper of her car. If you’ve found them, please let me know and I’ll send you Beverly’s contact information.

Sandhill Cranes seem to be heading home already. Steve Zoellner noted that, beginning on the 15th, “there have been a few large formations of cranes flying north.” On the 18th Donny Griffin saw a flock of 45 going north over the Osceola National Forest. And on the 25th I saw a flock of about 30 circling and calling over the intersection of NW 13th Street and 23rd Avenue.

The Peregrine Falcon photographed by Marvin Smith on the 1st was rediscovered by Lloyd Davis on the 18th where the powerlines cross the marsh south of Sparrow Alley. It’s still there as of the 27th.

As is the Dickcissel at La Chua. It’s moving around a little bit, though. On the 27th it was sighted near the trailer at the end of the boardwalk and on the far side of the canal running from Little Alachua Sink to Alachua Sink. Tina Nauman got several photos on the 26th.

Barbara Stewman, who rediscovered the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher north of Newberry on the 13th, saw it again on the 21st, and John Middleton photographed it on the 25th. No other Scissor-tailed has ever stayed nearly this long (though I’m not sure how many were checked and re-checked after the initial sighting). The previous record holder, out of a total of 16 sightings, remained along a dirt road near Archer and Parker Roads for 7 days (22-28 October 2013). This one has now been hanging out for at least 55 days.

Rusty Blackbirds are still being seen at Magnolia Parke. Cindy Boyd saw 7 on the 27th, but up to 62 have been reported there this month.

Birders have noticed a white-headed and white-breasted Red-tailed Hawk around Sparrow Alley, and several of them are eBirding it as a “Krider’s” Red-tailed. Apparently it’s not a Krider’s. Back in 2012 I asked Jeff Bouton, who spent two seasons as the official counter at the Cape May Hawk Watch (see Jack Connor’s great book Season at the Point) about Krider’s, and here’s what he said: “Krider’s is one of those goofy ‘boxes’ that to fit into perfectly you need to have all elements spot on. A big problem with Red-tailed is that it is SOOOO prone to leucism, albinism, and light extremes. They are just way more variable than other birds so harder to put definitive labels on confidently as a result.” Mike Manetz has noted that the tail on this bird is entirely red, which is not right for Krider’s.

Speaking of Red-tailed Hawks, Jeff also had something interesting to say about dark Red-taileds, such as that reported by Austin Gregg at the Levy Lake Loop on the 8th: “This is a fairly regular plumage type in Florida’s peninsular race of Red-tailed (Buteo jamaicensis umbrinus), seen in ~10-15% of individuals. You won’t find this in print anywhere so this is my take on it solely. The umbrinus Red-tailed is one of the least described (and most poorly described) subspecies I’ve ever encountered. Even in specialty raptor guides they warrant a one sentence description similar to ‘FL subspecies (umbrinus) similar to western calurus…’ or similar. This is what I call the ‘dark morph’ of the umbrinus subspecies which can show an all-dark breast which ranges from an almost chestnut to a dark reddish brown with a fairly solid and notably darker belly band. The unique part though is unlike other ‘dark forms’ is the lower belly, undertail, and thighs are more like typical light morph. As I said it’s never been described in any guide but I did send Richard Crossley an image of a bird similar to this that he inserted last minute in the ‘Florida’ page of his raptors guide but again, no real description. Another neat/interesting part about umbrinus that bucks the trend of the expected is that they are notably larger than the northern borealis race.” For what it’s worth, 10-15% seems too high in my experience. Assuming that Jeff is correct, I’d say it’s no more than 1-2%. But who are you going to believe, me or a real hawk expert?

Some of you eBirders may know this and some of you may not: You should individualize your “shared checklists” because differences between two (or more) versions of a shared checklists are highly valuable to eBird statisticians. So if you go out birding with your friend(s), don’t enter separate checklists. One person should enter what they recorded and then share the checklist with the other(s), and – this is the important point – the other(s) should adjust the checklist to agree with their own records or memories, deleting birds they didn’t see and altering numbers as they see fit. Don’t just accept them, unaltered, into your eBird account.

Remember the Backyard Birding Tour, scheduled for Saturday, February 25th: https://alachuaaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/FOURTH-ALACHUA-AUDUBON-TOUR-FLYER-1.pdf

The Northeast Coast field trip scheduled for February 4th has been cancelled. The Huguenot Park web site says, “Huguenot Park is closed indefinitely due to damages from Hurricane Matthew,” and as John Hintermister points out, “Without Huguenot it could be a little boring.”

A Dark-eyed Junco showed up at Mike Manetz’s NW Gainesville feeder on the 17th and has made brief appearances every day since then. Mike got a photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/31586128774/in/album-72157594281975202/

On the morning of the 20th Andy Kratter found a Common Goldeneye at Depot Park. It was seen and photographed several times during the day. I notice belatedly that Scott Robinson found another Common Goldeneye – or perhaps the same one – at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 15th.

On the afternoon of the 20th Ben Ewing found a Nashville Warbler – the winter’s second – at the University Gardens adjoining Lake Alice, “associating with a feeding flock along the creek near the parking lot.” The University Gardens are on the south side of Museum Road a little east of its intersection with Village Drive.

The Dickcissel is still at Paynes Prairie. It was seen on the morning of the 20th by Caroline Poli and Joe Marchionno. I think it’s most often seen in the section of the weed patch between the boardwalk and the little Sora pond.

I haven’t seen a report of the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher since the 18th, but if you happen to be driving on US-41 2.5 miles north of Newberry (give or take half a mile), look around and see if it’s on the wires or out in the fields.

A Peregrine Falcon was seen and photographed by several birders on the 18th, on the power lines near Sparrow Alley. It resembles the one seen along La Chua on the 1st, so it may well be hanging around the Prairie.

That’s a lot of rare-ish birds. Seems like it could be a good weekend to kick off a year list…

On January 14th Fred Bassett came to Alachua County to band hummingbirds. He knew of ten hummingbirds at eight homes, and he successfully captured and banded seven of them: 1 Black-chinned, 2 Ruby-throated, and 4 Rufous. He missed 2 Ruby-throated as well as one that has yet to be seen well enough to be identified.

Speaking of banded birds, I was walking out of Lucky’s Market a couple of days ago when I spotted a House Sparrow wearing color bands. I contacted Jessica Burnett, who was studying House Sparrows here for a while (she’s currently in Nebraska), and she thinks she probably banded it at Pet Supermarket, a fraction of a mile farther north on 13th Street. I’ll have to get a better look at the colors before she can tell me exactly when, but it’s been at least two years ago. The area around 13th Street and 23rd Avenue has one of the few large populations of House Sparrows remaining in Gainesville.

I heard a Brown Thrasher singing in my NE Gainesville neighborhood on the 15th and again on the 19th.

John Killian’s property backs up to the Devil’s Millhopper, and when he looked out the back door on the 19th he saw an interesting sight: https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnhusbdadfrndteach/32363596546/in/dateposted/

Mark your calendars. Alachua Audubon’s Backyard Birding Tour is set for Saturday, February 25th. Tickets are on sale now at Wild Birds Unlimited. Watch this space for more information.

The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher originally discovered north of Newberry on December 2nd was seen again by Barbara Stewman on the afternoon of the 13th. It was along US-41 2.7 miles north of the intersection with State Road 26 (Newberry’s main intersection).

Andy Kratter saw the spring’s first Purple Martin over the clearcut north of Boulware Springs Park on the 13th, by one day a new early record for the county.

Speaking of spring, I saw my first redbud and wild plum blooms today.

On Wednesday the 11th, in the late afternoon, Jerry Gibson of St. Petersburg was walking along the Cones Dike Trail when he spotted an Ash-throated Flycatcher and obtained the two best photos anyone has yet taken of that species in Alachua County (here and here). He notes that he found it “near the white sandbags along the first east/west leg of the trail. It stayed low in the brush hawking insects low to the ground or on the ground mostly and never landing over approx 10’ high. Did not hear it vocalize during this time.” From the gate near the visitor center, walk out a few yards, make a right turn, and then go about two-thirds of the way to the next turn and look for the sandbags.

John Killian noticed “about 30 Rusty Blackbirds in a tall oak (and on the ground) at the SW corner of the grassy plaza in Magnolia Parke around 12:30” on the 12th. Lloyd Davis saw 50 there on the 13th.

If you’re still in New Year’s Resolution mode, here are four links that may improve your birding and, incidentally, make it much more fun. I’d suggest you bookmark them now and read them later, one at a time:

Paul Lehman, former editor of Birding magazine, on going off the beaten path: http://aba.org/birding/2014-MAR-APR/Lehman.pdf

A profile of Guy McCaskie, the California birder who pretty much invented the way we bird now – mainly, in fact, by going off the beaten path. Don’t be put off by the overwritten first paragraph, the rest of it is good: https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/nab/v046n02/p00204-p00213.pdf

Van Remsen’s invaluable essay “On Taking Field Notes”: https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/nab/v031n05/p00946-p00953.pdf

I can waste a lot of time reading these mini-biographies of influential California birders, including the above-referenced Lehman, McCaskie, and Remsen (plus Ryan Terrill’s father Scott). They increase my resolve to be a better birder: http://creagrus.home.montereybay.com/CAwhoswho.html

The possible Curlew Sandpiper at La Chua has not been relocated. Ryan Terrill went back out on the 7th, as did Craig Bateman and I, and I was out there on the 8th with Lloyd Davis, Chris Burney, John Killian, and Colleen Cowdery, but none of us saw the bird in question.

Colleen Cowdery got a nice photo of the Dickcissel at La Chua on January 8th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/150798766@N07/32061473412/ I think the secret is being there early. Then follow the boardwalk out past the roofed shelter that overlooks Little Alachua Sink and continue until just before the boardwalk starts to bend left toward the main Alachua Sink. Watch the weeds to your right for sparrow activity. Be patient. The bird isn’t always there, but that area is your best bet. Dick Bartlett found it again on the morning of the 11th.

Austin Gregg noted what appears to be a dark-morph (i.e., Western) Red-tailed Hawk at Levy Lake Loop on the 8th. It was dark on the upper breast and wing linings, but it had the identifying red tail. Hopefully it will stick around and someone will get documentary photos.

Phil Laipis emailed a report on this past weekend’s field trip to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge: “Eleven hardy birders made the Saturday trek to St. Marks NWR for the annual trip. John Hintermister and I left Friday in much better weather, and birded St. George Island. Saturday dawned COLD, near freezing, foggy with some mist, and very windy, but turned sunny and cold by 10 am or so, warming up to about 45, although still very windy in the open. Sunday, only 4 really hardcore (mentally unsound?) birders joined John and me on Bottoms Road (even colder, and still windy) and Alligator Point for some more birding. My trip list for Sat and Sun was 88 species, with Friday adding another 15. Highlights for the trip were Golden-crowned Kinglet, Brown Creeper, Vermilion Flycatcher, all three scoters (Black, Surf, and White-winged), Red-throated Loon, and great looks at a Virgina Rail, with another seen pretty well in the predawn darkness. Major disappointments were sparrows, which did not seem to like the cold wind very much, and the Saturday absence of Mallards and American Black Ducks seen on Friday.” Alachua Audubon’s next field trip will be to Circle B Bar Reserve in Lakeland on the 14th. Details here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/classes-field-trips/

In March 1996 I started amassing the information for a big historical tome on the birds of Alachua County. Twenty-one years later I’m still amassing. Meanwhile Ron Smith has just brought out the second edition of his book on the birds of Pinellas County: http://www.stpeteaudubon.org/birds-of-pinellas-county-by-ron-smith I’d better get the Alachua County book finished, unless I want to feel like Samuel Johnson with his dictionary: “I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please, have sunk into the grave….”

Put it on your calendar: Alachua Audubon will host a program meeting next Tuesday: “Treatment Wetlands Produce Cleaner Water, More Birds by Bob Knight and Debbie Segal. Tuesday, January 17th at Tower Road Library (not Millhopper Library). Social at 6:30 pm, program at 7:00 pm. Some of the best birding hotspots in Florida are man-made treatment wetlands that were designed to strip nutrients and pollutants from storm water and municipal wastewater. The use of treatment wetlands is a proven technology that cost-effectively cleanses nutrient-laden water, and one of the many ancillary benefits of treatment wetlands is their high biological productivity that translates into more birds. Learn how these man-made features cleanse Florida’s waters, attract birds, enhance environmental education, contribute to Florida’s public use facilities, and generate ecotourism dollars.”

Very belatedly, here are the results from the December 18th Christmas Bird Count. We set a new record, with 167 species. There were two that had never before been recorded in the Count’s 59-year history, Common Tern and Clay-colored Sparrow, both documented with photos. Record high counts included Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Mottled Duck, Royal Tern, Snowy Egret, Barred Owl, Sedge Wren, and Chipping Sparrow.

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 2,510
Greater White-fronted Goose 4
Wood Duck  198
Gadwall 9
American Wigeon 3
Mallard 32
Mottled Duck 1,196
Blue-winged Teal 1,040
Northern Shoveler 111
Northern Pintail 29
Green-winged Teal 1,150
Ring-necked Duck 511
Lesser Scaup 3
Bufflehead 7
Common Goldeneye 1
Hooded Merganser 168
Ruddy Duck 15
Northern Bobwhite 3
Wild Turkey 61
Pied-billed Grebe 112
Rock Pigeon 53
Eurasian Collared-Dove 17
Common Ground-Dove 8
Mourning Dove 634
White-winged Dove 3
Vaux’s Swift 5
Whip-poor-will 4
Selasphorus, sp. (Rufous or Allen’s Hummingbird) 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 3
King Rail 12
Virginia Rail 2
Sora 52
Common Gallinule 352
American Coot 864
Limpkin 52
Sandhill Crane 7,965
Whooping Crane 1
Killdeer 501
Stilt Sandpiper 2
Dunlin 1
Least Sandpiper 15
Long-billed Dowitcher 38
Wilson’s Snipe 262
American Woodcock 7
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 68
Lesser Yellowlegs 18
Bonaparte’s Gull 7
Laughing Gull 1
Ring-billed Gull 124
Herring Gull 1
Royal Tern 2
Forster’s Tern 5
Common Tern 1 (outstanding photos in Daniel Young’s eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33135640 )
Common Loon 3
Wood Stork 86
Double-crested Cormorant 323
Anhinga 230
American White Pelican 82
Least Bittern 2
American Bittern 9
Great Blue Heron 178
Great Egret 150
Snowy Egret 393
Little Blue Heron 224
Tricolored Heron 41
Cattle Egret 149
Green Heron 7
Black-crowned Night-Heron 25
White Ibis 1,394
Glossy Ibis 728
Black Vulture 311
Turkey Vulture 1,316
Osprey 1
Bald Eagle 63
Northern Harrier 47
Sharp-shinned Hawk 7
Cooper’s Hawk 17
Accipiter, sp. (Cooper’s or Sharp-shinned, couldn’t tell which) 5
Red-shouldered Hawk 168
Red-tailed Hawk 37
Barn Owl 5
Eastern Screech-Owl 14
Great Horned Owl 40
Barred Owl 65
Belted Kingfisher 29
Red-headed Woodpecker 29
Red-bellied Woodpecker 316
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 59
Downy Woodpecker 124
Northern Flicker 109
Pileated Woodpecker 138
American Kestrel 47
Merlin 2
Peregrine Falcon 2
Eastern Phoebe 462
Vermilion Flycatcher 2
Ash-throated Flycatcher 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Loggerhead Shrike 22
White-eyed Vireo 85
Blue-headed Vireo 60
Blue Jay 212
American Crow 630
Fish Crow 84
crow, sp. 64
Tree Swallow 9
Carolina Chickadee 267
Tufted Titmouse 363
Brown-headed Nuthatch 6
House Wren 243
Sedge Wren 101
Marsh Wren 21
Carolina Wren 409
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 474
Golden-crowned Kinglet 7
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 615
Eastern Bluebird 318
Hermit Thrush 62
American Robin 4,853
Gray Catbird 172
Brown Thrasher 18
Northern Mockingbird 127
European Starling 51
Cedar Waxwing 30
House Sparrow 22
American Pipit 79
House Finch 105
American Goldfinch 681
Ovenbird 11
Northern Waterthrush 2
Black-and-white Warbler 97
Orange-crowned Warbler 85
Nashville Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 167
American Redstart 3
Northern Parula 6
Palm Warbler 754
Pine Warbler 119
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1,195
Yellow-throated Warbler 41
Prairie Warbler 4
Wilson’s Warbler 2
Eastern Towhee 117
Field Sparrow 3
Chipping Sparrow 994
Clay-colored Sparrow 1
Vesper Sparrow 46
Savannah Sparrow 190
Grasshopper Sparrow 3
Henslow’s Sparrow 2
Fox Sparrow 4
Song Sparrow 23
Lincoln’s Sparrow 3
Swamp Sparrow 302
White-throated Sparrow 5
White-crowned Sparrow 4
Northern Cardinal 754
Summer Tanager 1
Painted Bunting 1
Red-winged Blackbird 9,501
Eastern Meadowlark 271
Rusty Blackbird 1
Common Grackle 867
Boat-tailed Grackle 4,234
Brown-headed Cowbird 780
Baltimore Oriole 46

Several lucky birders kicked off 2017 with the sight of a Peregrine Falcon stooping on shorebirds along the La Chua Trail on New Year’s Day. Marvin Smith of Valdosta got this spectacular photo.

On the 7th Ryan Terrill found a sandpiper along La Chua that may have been a Dunlin … or it may have been Alachua County’s first-ever Curlew Sandpiper. To Ryan the bird seemed taller and grayer than a Dunlin, with a more slender bill. He got several photos, but while he was trying to get another the bird flew away and he was unable to catch a glimpse of the diagnostic white rump. He went back later in the day in an effort to relocate it and nail down the ID, but he couldn’t find it. He did see a real Dunlin from the observation platform, but the earlier bird displayed some retained juvenile wing coverts that the Dunlin lacked. Here’s a link to Ryan’s checklist, with his photos (it’s under “Calidris sp.”): http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33508595 If you want to look for it yourself, go out the La Chua Trail past the hairpin turn; beyond that point the area on your right is flooded, and that’s where it was, fairly close to the last big bend before the observation platform. Let’s cross our fingers!

On the morning of the 3rd Mike Manetz and I walked out the La Chua Trail with Matt O’Sullivan, who was a day away from leaving for a new career and a new life in Dallas. We found a cluster of sparrows in the weeds below the boardwalk – White-crowned, Vesper, Savannah, Swamp, Song, Grasshopper, and Lincoln’s Sparrows … and a Dickcissel, a bird that has been frequenting the area since at least December 10th, when it was discovered by Adam Zions. It was a county and state life bird for Matt, and a fitting send-off for him.

We’re going to miss Matt around here. No one was better at finding birds. He found the Black Scoters at Newnans Lake that most of us have on our county life lists. I remember sitting in Mike Manetz’s living room compiling the fall migration count, and getting a call from Matt informing us that he was watching a Cerulean Warbler chase a Canada Warbler at Palm Point. I remember sneaking out to Sweetwater Wetlands Park one August day before it opened – wading across a ditch of thigh-deep water – to look for shorebirds, and Matt saying again and again that he’d really like to see a Buff-breasted Sandpiper, while again and again I reminded him that our few Buff-breasted Sandpiper records all came from September, not August – and then (of course) we found a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. If you want to read that story in a little more detail (and illustrated with Matt’s photos), go here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/2014/08/10/buff-breasted-sandpiper-at-paynes-prairie/ Matt, thanks for all the birds, and good luck. You’re going to enjoy Texas.

I heard a cardinal and titmouse singing in my neighborhood on the morning of the 28th, a chickadee on the morning of the 2nd.

A Rose-breasted Grosbeak has been visiting a feeder in NW Gainesville since the 26th. This is, I think, the county’s seventh winter record.

Becky Enneis and Bob Carroll set themselves an interesting challenge in 2016. At the end of every week each of them would choose their favorite photo from those taken during the week. They couldn’t repeat the species during the rest of the year, or change the photo once they had made their decisions at the end of each week. Becky and Bob have each compiled their “52 Birds” photos on Flickr: here’s Becky’s and here’s Bob’s.

Cedar Key Audubon Society is sponsoring a tour of Cuba in May: http://www.cedarkeysaudubon.org/uploads/7/6/0/3/76037653/cuba_trip_cedar_key_audubon_copy.pdf

The latest edition of The Crane, the Alachua Audubon Society newsletter, is online. Included are Mike Manetz’s summary of the late fall, results of three area Christmas Counts (Gainesville, Melrose, Ichetucknee/Santa Fe/O’Leno), descriptions of all the field trips scheduled for January and February, and much, much more: https://alachuaaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Crane-Jan-Feb-2017-1.pdf

Arjan Dwarshuis is a Dutch birder who has spent 2016 setting a new World Big Year record. In Panama on November 3rd he saw a Yellow-crowned Euphonia, his 6,043rd species, topping the existing record of 6,042 species set last year by Noah Stryker. He continued adding new birds to his list every day, and on December 14th he came to Gainesville, where Mike Manetz found him nine more: Wood Duck, Henslow’s Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Whooping Crane, American Pipit, Carolina Chickadee, Red-headed Woodpecker, and Bonaparte’s Gull. By the end of the day Arjan was in Duluth, Minnesota, with 6651 species on his year list and many more to come in the last two weeks of the year.

While we’re on that subject, Noah Stryker’s video summary of his 2015 World Big Year is one of the best advertisements for birding I’ve ever seen. There’s just so much joy in it, and such a sense of the big wide beautiful world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR2fFtIReVU

There’s a Common Tern on Newnans Lake. It was first noted by Matt O’Sullivan, I’m not sure when, and then seen on the afternoon of the 16th by Mike Manetz, Greg McDermott, and me. We all noted that the mantle was darker gray than a Forster’s Tern’s, that it had a half-hood rather than a black mask, and that the leading edge of the inner wing (carpal bar) was black. This is only the second winter record for Common Tern in Alachua County; Bryant Roberts saw one perched on the Powers Park fishing pier on December 21, 1989.

Frank Goodwin found a Fox Sparrow along the Cones Dike Trail on the 8th. It was not seen in that spot after a controlled burn on the 9th, but Mike Manetz found two of them a little farther down the trail while scouting on the 13th. From the visitor center hike out past the 2-mile marker, follow the trail as the elevation rises, go another quarter-mile or so, and then look for the flagging tape. Remember that Frank Goodwin also had an Ash-throated Flycatcher along this trail on the 8th.

Adam Zions found a Dickcissel, the fall’s third, along the La Chua Trail on the 10th, “in a low tangle of blackberry, saltbush, etc., opposite the first covered pavilion along the boardwalk.”

Lincoln’s Sparrows are being seen in fairly good numbers, by which I mean four birds in three locations on Paynes Prairie in the past two weeks. At least two are hanging out around the boardwalk at the beginning of La Chua. Matt O’Sullivan photographed one of them on the 9th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/31635503926/in/datetaken-public/

Five Vaux’s Swifts are roosting in the chimneys at Dauer Hall on the UF campus. Andy Kratter noted that they showed up at 5:33 on the afternoon of the 15th and entered the chimney over the next two minutes, something to keep in mind if you’d like to see them yourself.

Sandhill Cranes are still arriving. I spent the 12th and 13th painting the front of my house and saw seven southbound flocks going over my NE Gainesville neighborhood: on the 12th I saw 20 birds at 2:00, 40 at 2:30, and 50-60 at 3:30; on the 13th I saw 21 at 12:35, 22 at 1:10, 79 at 4:40, and 56 at 4:45, a total of approximately 290 birds over two days. I still haven’t seen any at the Beef Teaching Unit fields off Williston Road.

A minor herpetological note. Bob Carroll and I were scouting our CBC territory on the 15th when we found a congregation of 48 turtles basking in a pond in an apartment complex. I was surprised to see that one of them was a map turtle, so I borrowed Bob’s camera and got a picture. Map turtles are a western group (from the Apalachicola River to Texas and up into the Midwest and Plains states), so it has to be an escaped or released captive. Jonathan Mays tells me there’s a small introduced population in the Santa Fe River, but this was the first one actually found in Alachua County: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/31535195392/in/datetaken-public/

Here’s my last appeal before Sunday’s Christmas Bird Count: If you live within the Gainesville Count circle – more or less the city limits plus Paynes Prairie and Micanopy – and you’ve got some interesting birds in your yard, please send me an email within the next 24 hours. We’re talking Dark-eyed Junco, Purple Finch, Pine Siskin, Summer Tanager, Red-breasted Nuthatch, any species of hummingbird, a big flock of orioles – something you don’t see every year, something that’s different from the normal run of backyard birds. If it’s sufficiently unusual, we’ll want it for the Count. So please email me right away.