Author: Rex Rowan

Mike Manetz called a few minutes ago from the La Chua platform, where he was looking at four Greater White-fronted Geese. He described their position as “off to the east side, pretty far out,” so bring your scope. This is the 18th occurrence of this species in Alachua County.

As mentioned in a previous email, Mike tied the existing Alachua County Year List record when he saw the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher north of Newberry on the 2nd. It was his 255th species in 2016. He broke the record two days later, when he was tipped off about a Snow Goose that Howard Adams found along the La Chua Trail. On the 5th he was scouting his Christmas Bird Count territory, a restricted area near Hickory Ranch, when he found an Ash-throated Flycatcher (#257) in the same spot where he’d seen it during two previous Christmas Counts. And now the Greater White-fronted Geese (#258). Whatever his year-end total turns out to be, it’s going to be very tough for anyone to beat.

Not long after Mike’s call, the phone rang again. It was Frank Goodwin, out on the Cones Dike Trail with his wife Irina. They had just found an Ash-throated Flycatcher – this one, unlike Mike’s, in a publicly-accessible area. From the Paynes Prairie visitor center (this is the main entrance, off 441 just north of Micanopy), walk down to the Cones Dike Trail and go through the gate. After a short distance the trail makes a turn to the right. Another quarter-mile or half-mile and the trail makes a turn to the left. The bird was 300-400 yards beyond this left turn, hanging around a stand of winged sumac.

Reminder: The Christmas Bird Count is Sunday the 18th. If you live within the Count circle, watch your feeders for something out of the ordinary, like a hummingbird, a flock of orioles, a Dark-eyed Junco, a Pine Siskin, a Purple Finch, a Black-headed Grosbeak, a Townsend’s Warbler, something like that.

Mike Manetz, Bob Carroll, Tedd Greenwald, and Mary Ellen Flowers relocated the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher that Linda Holt found this afternoon. Bob tells me that it was considerably farther south than first described: “The bird is actually closer to Newberry than I thought. It’s about two miles north of Newberry on US-41 near a subdivision called Newberry Hills. It’s hanging out in the field on the west side of the road about 100 yards north of the entrance to the subdivision. I parked on the east side and well off of the road so as not to scare the bird away. I suggest turning into the subdivision, but making a left onto the grass after traveling only about 15 feet from US-41. Drive along the tree line that parallels the road for about a hundred yards and scan the wires and fence to the west.”

I’m passing along that information in case you want to try for the bird this weekend. But you should be aware that, of the 13 previous occurrences of Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Alachua County, one stayed for a week and one stayed for two days, but all the rest were one-day wonders.

It was Alachua County Year Bird #255 for Mike, which ties the record for most species seen in the county in a single year. All he needs now is a Herring Gull or a Snow Goose to break the record. (Mike set the existing record too. He’s the only birder capable of competing against himself!)

The flycatcher is an adult with salmon sides and a long tail. Tedd emailed the nice photo below:

Bob Carroll just called to report that Linda Holt spotted a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher a short while ago on US-41 just south of the intersection with County Road 232.

Mike Manetz holds the record for the most bird species seen in Alachua County during a single calendar year. That record is 255, set in 2012 (to see the historical standings, go here and scroll down to “Big Year” under Alachua), and he is presently in the process of beating it. He went into mid-November with 249 species on his list. Then on the 14th Jonathan Mays found a Hairy Woodpecker on the Red Loop at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve, and Mike relocated it on the 15th (#250). On the morning of the16th he went looking for two Black-bellied Plovers that Becky Enneis had photographed from the La Chua observation platform on the 11th, and though he didn’t see them he did find an American Avocet which he photographed (#251). He went back later that day, in hopes that the afternoon light would help him to see birds south of the platform, and it did: the plovers were #252. He went to Powers Park on the 17th and found 11 Red-breasted Mergansers (#253). And on the 19th he joined Bob Knight, Debbie Segal, and Jennifer Donsky on Bob’s boat at Lake Santa Fe and counted ten Horned Grebes (#254). Mike is currently out of town celebrating Thanksgiving with family, but with over a month to go he’s certain to set a new record. He hasn’t seen a Herring Gull yet, which is not too hard to find at Newnans Lake or Lake Lochloosa in winter, and that will tie the record. Anything else – Fox Sparrow, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Dark-eyed Junco, Snow Goose – will set a new one. I remember, back in the early 90s, Barbara Muschlitz wondering in the Audubon newsletter whether 200 species in a year was possible in Alachua County. Right now eBird’s Top 100 for Alachua County shows 12 birders with 200 or more (and Howard Adams at 199), so I think we’ve got an answer.

Speaking of competitions, Glenn Israel won Best Yard Of The Day on the 23rd, when a Red-breasted Nuthatch AND a Western Tanager showed up at his NW Gainesville home.

Lloyd Davis found a Western Kingbird along the La Chua Trail on the 21st. It’s been photographed several times since, generally between the boardwalk overlooking Alachua Sink and the water control structure just a little farther down the trail. Trina Anderson got a nice shot on the 23rd: https://www.flickr.com/photos/46902575@N06/31202421455/in/datetaken/

The two female Vermilion Flycatchers are still in the wetland under the powerlines west of Sparrow Alley. Lloyd Davis, who made the initial discovery on the 11th, saw both birds on the 23rd.

The American Avocet that Mike found on the 16th was still present on the 23rd. The Black-bellied Plovers were last reported on the 19th, when Andy Kratter saw three, but they might still be there.

Andy has been keeping tabs on the twin chimneys at UF’s Dauer Hall, where a flock of Vaux’s Swifts roosted last winter. On the 14th he saw one swift, which was silent, but he felt that its flight style was more like a Chimney’s than a Vaux’s: “lots of soaring, less frantic.” On the 17th he again saw a single swift, probably the same bird. But on the 21st he saw three: “They came in separately, the first at 5:14, the second at 5:25, and the last at 5:39 (nearly dark). I only got good looks at the second bird, which flew in erratic choppy flight like Vaux’s and had noticeably paler throat and rump. Didn’t hear a peep though.” So they may be returning. Tomorrow will be one year since Sam and Ben Ewing discovered the roost. Sam wrote at the time, ” Ben and I climbed to the top of the stadium this evening to watch the skyline for swifts. Around 5:15 the first swift showed up and flew all over the place for a while. It finally began circling between the stadium and Century Tower, and finally dropped down into a chimney. We could not see exactly where, so we hurried to the tip top of the stadium, and spotted eleven more swifts flying around. We watched them, and spotted them go down a chimney a few buildings over. We first figured out where it looked to be on a satellite map, and then biked over and confirmed the location – they are roosting in the double chimney at Dauer Hall, right next to Pugh Hall.” A year later I’m still impressed at that.

The Halifax River Audubon Society has produced a 30-page coloring book of the birds of Cuba as a fundraiser to help Cuba’s school children: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4E7iNkfaDyUMC1wX1ZkaUxWM3gwTzYtZUlHdGpmZXlaMzRZ/view?usp=sharing

Remember the Alachua Audubon holiday social on December 2nd! Details in the second paragraph here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/2016/11/11/black-bellied-plovers-and-vermilion-flycatcher-at-la-chua/ I donated a laundry basket full of bird books, including some good ones.

Happy Thanksgiving to all! Birds are my life, and right now my favorite bird is roasting in the oven!

I found a Western Kingbird along the Hague Dairy’s main driveway at 9:30 on the morning of the 14th, perched on the fence opposite the silo. By 11:45, when Mike Manetz saw it, it had moved onto the fence line on the east side of the dairy, along NW 59th Drive south of the gate. He tells me that he photographed one in almost exactly the same spot one year ago today.

I went to the dairy because Garry Prowe had seen an interesting flycatcher there on the morning of the 13th. It wasn’t an Eastern Phoebe; he’d already seen several of those when he came across this bird. He described it as having a black head with a sharply defined white cheek or jaw area, a white throat, white underparts with no gray wash, and a gray back. The only thing in my mental file fitting that description is an immature Fork-tailed Flycatcher, which has been recorded in Florida many times but never in Alachua County. Here’s a picture I found online: http://www.arthurgrosset.com/sabirds/photos/tyrsav2918.jpg Anyway, both Garry and I were at the dairy this morning, searching around the place where he’d studied it for five minutes (map) yesterday, but neither of us had much time and we left without seeing it.

Danny Rohan saw the first Canvasbacks of the winter at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 13th. They were in female-type plumage, but I think the majority of male ducks haven’t yet molted into their breeding plumage. Mike Manetz went over to have a look, and saw them, “but unfortunately as we were watching them they decided to fly off to the west. We checked Bivens Arm to see if they were there but no (three Ruddys and a couple of Ring-necks were there). Also at Sweetwater were increasing numbers of ducks, including 60 Blue-winged and 3 Green-winged Teal, plus 20 Northern Shovelers.” However there was one Canvasback off the La Chua observation platform on the morning of the 14th, so they came back (or this one is a third).

Saturday’s Alachua Audubon field trip saw one female Vermilion Flycatcher under the power line cut, but when Jonathan Mays and Matt O’Sullivan went to see it on the 13th, they found TWO female Vermilions there. To see them yourself, walk out Sparrow Alley to the power lines, turn left, and walk all the way down to the wetland.

As most of you know, the low water at Alachua Lake has attracted several species of shorebirds. On the 11th Linda Holt was on the La Chua observation platform with Becky Enneis and Bob Carroll and she snapped a photo of two Black-bellied Plovers (with a Killdeer peering out from between them). It was the 13th occurrence of Black-bellied Plover in the county, but the very first photo documentation: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/30867129512/in/datetaken-public/

Speaking of shorebirds, I remember seeing a flock of 55 Wilson’s Snipe that flushed repeatedly at Chapmans Pond in the early 1990s. I hadn’t seen a single flock of snipe since then, and I’d begun to doubt my memory: could the birds at Chapmans Pond have been dowitchers rather than snipe? Do snipe ever flock at all? So I was pretty excited to see a flock of 25 snipe flying around near the La Chua observation platform during the Audubon field trip on November 11th. Eric Amundson got a photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/25347755809/in/datetaken-public/

Sandhill Cranes seem to be arriving a little early this year. Usually they come in at the end of November or even early December, but I saw a flock of 8 flying southeast over TV 20 on the afternoon of the 11th, Donny Griffin saw a flock of 30 flying south over his place in the Osceola National Forest on the 12th, the same day the Audubon field trip counted 30 at Alachua Lake. On the morning of the 14th Mike Manetz tallied 100 from the La Chua observation platform.

Also on the early side are Cedar Waxwings. Deena Mickelson heard two of them on October 27th. Adam and Gina Kent saw two and five respectively on November 7th and 8th, and Andy Kratter saw flocks of 15 and 20 on November 12th and 13th. This is about a month earlier than normal, but they did this last year too, so maybe there’s a new normal.

It’s looking like your best bet this weekend will be Saturday morning’s field trip to La Chua. There’s a Vermilion Flycatcher that Lloyd Davis found on Friday at the far end of the power line cut running out from Sparrow Alley, where the trail dead-ends at a little wetland. There’s the county’s 13th-ever Black-bellied Plovers that Bob Carroll and Chip Deutsch spotted from the observation platform, also on Friday. There are also a Whooping Crane, seven additional shorebird species including Dunlin, Stilt Sandpiper, and Long-billed Dowitcher, and at least seven waterfowl species, including Northern Pintail, American Wigeon, Gadwall, and a drake Mallard. Lincoln’s and Henslow’s Sparrows have been seen along La Chua during the past week or so. There’s a lot going on out there. So meet Alachua Audubon at the La Chua parking lot at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning.

Put it on your calendar: Celebrate conservation, birds, and the holidays with the Alachua Audubon Society at our holiday social on Friday, December 2nd beginning at 6:30 p.m. In place of our traditional Silent Auction, AAS will offer alternative fundraising activities. We will be selling AAS hats and bird and nature-related books, CDs, and DVDs for reasonable prices. Donate to AAS by contributing bird and nature-related books that you no longer need and purchasing new additions for your collection. You may drop off donations at Wild Birds Unlimited (preferable so we can have them priced and set up to display) or bring them the night of the social. A new UF birding club, GREBE (Gators for Really Excellent Birding Experiences) will host a bird calling contest with two categories: local bird calls and bird call karaoke with prizes for the winners. Amaze your friends with your Barred and Screech Owl imitations! Directions: From Newberry Road, turn south on NW 48th Boulevard (across from Gainesville Health and Fitness Center). Drive south about 2 blocks. Look for tennis courts on the right. The Clubhouse is next to the tennis courts on the right. Look for our Alachua Audubon signs! We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming Holiday Social!

Tracking wild birds in their migrations and other movements will be the topic of Caroline Poli’s talk at the Alachua Audubon program meeting this Thursday, November 10th: “We’ll follow Atlantic Puffins in Maine, Brown Pelicans along the Atlantic coast, Masked and Red-footed Boobies in Mexico, and critically endangered Snail Kites in Florida, to find out how tracking animals can fill critical information gaps and guide conservation action.” Join us in the meeting room at the Millhopper Branch Library, 3145 NW 43rd Street. The social half-hour will begin at 6:30, the talk at 7:00. Additional details here.

Early this afternoon Peter Polshek got a text from Eric Anderson and Wendy Wilbur relating the discovery of a Yellow-headed Blackbird on the University of Florida campus. It was seen in the same area where the Vermilion Flycatcher was discovered on October 20th, in the orchard along IFAS Research Drive south of Hull Road. That’s all I know at this point. Parking-wise, Sunday is a good day to go looking for it.

Jonathan Mays had his second Dickcissel of the fall at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 4th, “near the concrete path in the sluiceway dividing cells 1 and 2.”

The Alachua Audubon field trip to the Hague Dairy on the 5th found a Bronzed Cowbird, though only a few participants got to see it before it disappeared; Michael Brock relocated it on the 6th. This is probably the same bird that Mike Manetz found there on October 22nd. To me the eye didn’t seem very noticeably red except in certain lights, which was something that Mike also noted.

John Hintermister walked out La Chua on the 31st and called to tell me that it was “hot.” He saw 74 species of birds, including 757 Blue-winged Teal, 83 Mottled Ducks, a Gadwall, an American Wigeon, a drake Mallard, 4 Roseate Spoonbills, a Whooping Crane, and nine species of shorebirds including 107 Long-billed Dowitchers, 4 Dunlin, 3 Stilt Sandpipers, and 2 Pectoral Sandpipers. The Dunlin, which are rare in Alachua County (23 occurrences), had been there since October 29th – when Matt Bruce photographed six – and were still there as of November 5th, when John Martin counted 12.

On the 31st Linda Hensley saw a Scarlet Tanager and a Summer Tanager in her NW Gainesville yard. According to eBird, neither had been seen in the county since the 19th, and neither has been seen since, so those were probably the last of the fall migrants. It will be interesting to see how the number of wintering Summer Tanagers compares with last year, when we had more than 20 sighted during the season.

Here’s a list of the area Christmas Bird Counts. Most of them need help, so participate if you can:

December 15 (Thursday) – Melrose  Joyce King sjoyceking@comcast.net
December 15 (Thursday) – Lake City  Valerie Thomas v.thomas57@gmail.com
December 15 (Thursday) – Emeralda/Sunnyhill  Barb Gay stkite52@gmail.com
December 18 (Sunday) – Gainesville  Andy Kratter kratter@flmnh.ufl.edu
December 19 (Monday) – West Marion County  Judy Greenburg judymg@gmail.com
December 20 (Tuesday) – Ichetucknee/Santa Fe/O’Leno  Ginger Morgan Ginger.Morgan@myfwc.com
December 20 (Tuesday) – St. Augustine  Diane Reed dreedster@aol.com
December 26 (Monday) – Jacksonville  Anne Turner sungrebe86@yahoo.com
December 30 (Friday) – Cedar Key  Ron Christen 850-567-0490

Is anyone interested in some old copies of Birding magazine from the 1980s? Howard Adams is giving them away. If you want them, let me know.

Wild Spaces and Public Places urgently needs to raise at least $10,000 for a final round of mailings to counter paid opposition that has sprung up. There is a link to donate under the drop down menu here: http://www.wildspacespublicplaces.org/

It’ll soon be Christmas Bird Count time. Gainesville Count co-compiler Andy Kratter writes: “December 18: circle the date! The Gainesville Christmas Bird Count will be held Sunday, December 18. Co-compilers Bob Carroll and I invite you to join in the fun for some great birds, great birders, a great compilation with pizza and beer/drinks, and hopefully a record count this year. Last year we found 162 species and tied the highest ever count . All are welcome to participate. If you participated last year, you will be contacted. If you are new, send me a message (kratter@flmnh.ufl.edu) and I will find a slot for you.”

Don Morrow of Tallahassee witnessed a huge migratory movement from Bald Point State Park (Franklin County, in the mid-Panhandle) on the 22nd: “There was a mass flight of Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers at dawn this morning, numbering in the thousands of birds heading East. The flight continued through about 9:30 am. Most were not landing and continued across the Ochlocknee River. Even the birds that dropped into the oaks (mostly Palm Warblers) continued moving to the East and many were crossing the river. There were small groups of Flickers also moving East….I saw a number of Harriers moving East….I also saw my first Orange-crowned Warbler of the winter season and a few Eastern Meadowlarks.” This an excellent illustration of what the Brits call vismig (VISible MIGration; nice pictorial Twitter feed here; my wife chose the September 30th landscape as her computer wallpaper).

Anyway, Don’s observation took place on the 22nd. The Yellow-rumpeds arrived here on the following day. No one had previously reported more than 16 on a single field trip, but on the 23rd Adam Zions counted 150 at the Cones Dike Trail, and on the 26th Mike Manetz and I estimated 200 there. Donny Griffin reported his first Eastern Meadowlark of the winter at his place in the Osceola National Forest on the 20th, two days before Don’s observation, and Mike Manetz and I saw a flocklet of four flying over Cones Dike on the morning of the 26th. Mike saw the first Orange-crowned Warblers of the winter at La Chua on the 24th, and one at the Hague Dairy on the 25th.

Flickers are arriving too, though their migration started at the beginning of the month. According to eBird there was one Alachua County report in July, one in August, two in September … and 98 so far in October, beginning on the 6th. Flickers were once the most abundant woodpecker on the Gainesville Christmas Bird Count, outnumbering every other species on 25 of the 29 Counts from 1957 to 1986 – sometimes outnumbering all the other woodpecker species put together! Beginning in 1987 the Red-bellied Woodpecker took the top spot and the flicker began to fall back. In the past five years it has run a steady fifth place, with an average of 52 individuals per count, outnumbered by Red-bellied Woodpecker (avg. 270), Pileated Woodpecker (120), Downy Woodpecker (119), and in four of the five years, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (81). The only less common woodpeckers are Red-headed Woodpeckers (avg. 21), which largely vacate the Gainesville area during winter, and Hairy Woodpeckers, which have been reported on only three of the last 20 Counts.

Golden-crowned Kinglets are moving into Florida right now – more than usual, and earlier than usual. The state’s first of the winter showed up in three northern counties on the 22nd, and the next day Adam Zions spotted three along Cones Dike.

Mike Manetz found a Bronzed Cowbird at the Hague Dairy on the 22nd. This is the 13th occurrence in the county. All but the first four of those were at the Hague Dairy.

Speaking of rare birds, of the 32 occurrences of Clay-colored Sparrow in Alachua County (30 of them since 1999), 14 have made their initial appearance in a three-week window – October 24th to November 14th – and half of those have appeared on October 30th. Hey, that’s just a few days from now!

Ten months ago today, Dale Birkenholz of Des Moines, Iowa, died. You probably don’t recognize the name, but if there were an Alachua County Birders’ Hall of Fame he’d be in it. By the time the Gainesville birding scene began to gel in the late 1960s he was long gone, having taken a position as professor of biological sciences at Illinois State University. He held that job from 1962, the year he received his doctorate from the University of Florida, until his retirement in 1991. But while he was in Gainesville (1958-62) he established an impressive number of bird records here. He discovered the county’s one-and-only White-winged Scoter lying dead under the power lines at Paynes Prairie on 25 October 1958 and brought it to the museum; he found the county’s first Fox Sparrow on 11 January 1959, the county’s first Chestnut-sided Warbler on 7 September 1959, the county’s first Brewer’s Blackbirds at Paynes Prairie on 2 March 1961; and the county’s first American Golden-Plover at Paynes Prairie on 6 March 1961. Most importantly, he was the first person to discover, in winter 1958-59, that Sandhill Cranes migrate to and from Florida. Prior to that winter, all the Sandhills seen in Florida were presumed to be the Florida subspecies, but Birkenholz is credited with noticing that 70 wintered on Paynes Prairie and then flew north in March. According to his obituary in the Bloomington (Illinois) Pantagraph, “he lived a life of kind optimism and service to others,” which is easy to believe after reading this heartfelt and admiring tribute from one of his younger friends, a paragraph of which I’ll quote: “Birkenholz was Illinois’ own personal Gandalf. He was ageless; timeless; and knew absolutely everything there was to know about everything. But for Dale knowing it was not enough. For Dale, sharing his vast amount of knowledge (which could truly never be shared in its entirety as it would short circuit any normal person’s brain) was his greatest joy and his greatest gift and almost certainly his greatest talent. With a twinkled smile worthy of St. Nick, a soft voice always full of passionate but gentle inflection, body language mannerisms that were completely mesmerizing as he spoke – in all of my life I have never met anyone like this, and I can guarantee that every else who knew him felt the same way.”

Remember, Wild Spaces and Public Places needs your help: http://www.wildspacespublicplaces.org/

Fall migration has been weird this year. According to eBird, there were only four sightings of Bay-breasted Warbler, all on the 9th and 10th, and only four sightings of Black-throated Green, three of those on the 8th and 9th. Those are both relatively uncommon birds, though. What about Tennessee Warbler, which is usually fairly common? A handful of sightings up to the 9th, but then nothing until one on the 18th. All of these species are usually findable from the 10th through the 20th. Other fall migrants are still around – Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Magnolia Warbler, Yellow-billed Cuckoo – and there are plenty of American Redstarts. But the usual peak of migration, the week around October 15th, was pretty dead in terms of variety and numbers. Some people are expecting Friday’s cold front to bring us one more flight of neotropical migrants, but I think it’s more likely to deliver millions of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Hope I’m wrong.

The period of time between mid-October and the beginning of December is often a good one for western strays in Alachua County. That seems to be holding true this year. Travis Mitchell reported a Vermilion Flycatcher on the University of Florida campus on the 20th. From SW 34th Street go east on Hull Road past the museums and the Performing Arts Center, past Natural Area Drive, and take the next right onto IFAS Research Drive (according to Google Maps). There’s parking down there, but unless you have a UF decal you’re not safe from a ticket till after 4:00 (or on weekends). Mike Manetz went looking for the bird on the afternoon it was found: “The orchard compound is about a city block square. Turning right off Hull we drove along the eastern side, which is mainly a stunted peach orchard. We parked across the road at the SE corner and walked/stopped/watched along this side for about 45 minutes (parking no problem on grassy shoulder, very little traffic). At one point a couple of student/employee types came by and were excited about the Vermilion. One said the photo looked like it was taken in the peach area we were watching. After about 45 minutes we walked to Hull Rd and worked along the north fence line (along Hull), which had a large block of mature citrus, and then planted pine. We then walked back and checked the east side again and then worked along the southern fence line before giving up. We also checked the pond at the Natural Area Teaching Lab.” It may just be passing through, but Vermilions often stick around all winter.

Another frequent western stray during late fall is the Dickcissel, and on the evening of the 20th Jonathan Mays found one of these along the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail “just over 1 mile east of the La Chua trailhead. Once you hit the ‘2mi.’ marker on the trail, travel another 100m around small curve to where field opens up on both sides of trail.” I think that’s the 38th for Alachua County. Half of those came in the last ten years; six were identified solely by the distinctive call-note from migrants passing over in the pre-dawn hours.

Mike Manetz found a Swainson’s Warbler at Palm Point on the 20th. He called John Hintermister right away, but he and John weren’t able to relocate it. Still, here’s where Mike saw it: from the parking lot, walk toward the Point, and when the old boat ramp is directly to your right, look to your left. That’s where it was. There’s only been one later sighting in the county’s history, a bird that Andy Kratter saw at Bolen Bluff on 21 October 2004.

Red-breasted Nuthatches are still showing up. If you remember, Ryan Terrill heard the season’s first on the 9th, right after Hurricane Matthew. The next one visited Dick and Patty Bartlett’s SE Gainesville feeder on the 14th. And this morning Irina Goodwin photographed a third along the La Chua Trail, in the brushy vegetation at the water control structure: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/30432584546/in/dateposted-public/

Trina Anderson got a photo of the Wilson’s Warbler at Bolen Bluff on the 17th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/46902575@N06/29760682924/in/datetaken-public/ Also at Bolen Bluff, Andy Kratter found a Nashville Warbler on the 16th. The Wilson’s was still there on the 21st, but the Nashville appears to have been a one-day wonder.

Stefan Rayer has noticed flocks of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks flying from the northwest to the southeast just after sunset. He figures that they’re heading to Paynes Prairie. But where in the northwest would such flocks be coming from? Does anyone have a clue? If you do, please let me know.

Stefan also saw the county’s first American Robin of the fall in his NW Gainesville yard on the 12th. Andy Kratter saw one too, flying over his SE Gainesville home on the 18th. I don’t usually expect to see the first migrants until late October or early November.

Ten years ago, in the second edition of A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida, Mike Manetz and I had this to say about Loggerhead Shrikes: “Fairly common resident often found on utility wires and fencelines, especially barbed wire, in open rural areas and around large tracts of close-cropped grass such as schoolyards and ballfields. Can also be found perched in the open along the La Chua Trail and the Cones Dike Trail.” If we were writing now, we’d have to call it “Uncommon and declining.” In the 1990s and early 2000s I used to see them regularly in the open stretch near Alachua Sink; my last sighting there was February 16, 2008, when I saw a pair building a nest along Sparrow Alley. Now I think La Chua is too overgrown for them. But they’ve disappeared from other places as well. Looking at eBird, I see 21 reports over the past two months, but they involve only a handful of locations: Watermelon Pond, Depot Park, Jonesville County Park, Cellon Creek Boulevard, Gainesville Regional Airport, a few more. A large percentage of the population used to persist in marginal habitat around the edge of the city, but those birds seem to be disappearing, and it’s not common anywhere. Put them in eBird when you see them; let’s track the decline as best we can.

Cornell is offering a learn-at-your-own-pace course in “Ornithology: Comprehensive Bird Biology” using their own textbook and a lot of online materials. Check it out, and view a sample lesson, by clicking here.

Ron Pittaway’s “Winter Finch Forecast” predicted another invasion year for Red-breasted Nuthatches, and sure enough, Ryan Terrill heard one at the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail’s Sweetwater Overlook on the 9th: “I never got a look but it was fairly close and calling a lot. I first heard a nasal ‘eenk’ a few times, so I played Red-breasted Nuthatch and the bird came in close, giving ‘eenk’ calls rapidly. It then moved off quickly. I chased after it and got it to respond to playback a few times.” The remainder of the Winter Finch Forecast, which predicts Pine Siskins and Purple Finches moving farther south than normal this winter, can be seen here: http://www.jeaniron.ca/2016/finchforecast16.htm

John Martin got video of the Black-capped Petrel at Newnans Lake on the 8th that shows its dramatic, swooping flight style, well adapted for the high seas. The flight style is characteristic of this species and can identify it from a long distance away when you’re on a rocking boat in the Gulf Stream: https://www.flickr.com/photos/thermalin/30081309042/in/dateposted-public/ And I hope that everyone saw Felicia Lee’s article about the petrel in the Gainesville Sun: http://www.gainesville.com/news/20161010/area-birders-welcome-unexpected-hurricane-evacuee

Linda Holt got a pretty great yard bird at her place east of Newberry on the 9th: “While watching a Rose-breasted Grosbeak in the dogwood trees in my yard a Black-billed Cuckoo flew up and perched nearby and I got good looks at it. It was a slender cuckoo with an all-black bill.”

More Peregrine Falcons than usual have been reported in Alachua County this fall, three from September 3-17 and another six in the last five days: Adam and Gina Kent saw one from Powers Park on the 7th, the Kents and Craig Faulhaber saw one soaring with Turkey Vultures on the 9th, Bob Carroll, Becky Enneis, and Linda Holt saw one while trying to relocate the Black-billed Cuckoo on the 9th, Adam Zions saw one at Chapmans Pond on the 10th, and Darrell Hartman saw two (!) at La Chua on the 11th. Of course the Newnans Lake and Paynes Prairie reports might pertain to the same two birds, but I think Hurricane Matthew forced some migrating Peregrines inland so maybe not.

The majority of Yellow-rumped Warblers arrive after the other migrants have passed on to the south, usually around October 20th. But we’ve had a handful of sightings already. The first of them showed up on the 9th, the day after the hurricane; there were three reports that day: Jordan Broadhead saw four along the La Chua Trail, Felicia Lee and several other birders saw three at Magnolia Parke, and Adam and Gina Kent saw one at their place in SE Gainesville. Laura Predny saw another at Lake Tuscawilla on the 10th.

The 9th also brought the season’s first Bay-breasted Warblers, and like the Yellow-rumpeds they appeared in multiple places that day: Jessica Hightower saw one at Newnans Lake State Forest, Keith Collingwood saw one in his yard in Melrose, and Chris Burney saw one at Prairie Creek. Some birds, like American Redstart and Prairie Warbler, have an extended migration that runs from July into early November, but Bay-breasted is just the opposite: if you want to see it, you have a brief window in mid-October, and then it’s gone.

The 9th ALSO brought the winter’s first White-crowned Sparrow, discovered by the Kents and Craig Faulhaber along the Bolen Bluff Trail. Matt O’Sullivan went out the next day and got a photo, which you can see on his eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S31986312

Hey, eBirders: I’ve set up two eBird Hotspots for Newnans Lake State Forest, one for the east trail and one for the west trail. Please use these hotspots when you visit, so that all the observations will be collected in the same place. I blogged about Newnans Lake State Forest’s west trail almost a year and a half ago: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/280/a-new-state-forest-in-gainesville/

Alachua Audubon will sponsor two field trips this coming weekend. They may be the last trips before migration falls off. Saturday we’ll walk the Bolen Bluff Trail, a perennial favorite. On Sunday at 8 a.m. we’ll join Trina Anderson in the parking lot of Kanapaha Botanical Gardens for a stroll through a variety of neatly-tended gardens, hardwood hammocks, sinkholes, and a man-made watercourse. This under-birded park can be excellent for migrating warblers. Participants will be admitted to the park for half price ($4), but MUST be on time to get the group rate.