Author: Sean Sheer

In 2022 a late afternoon thunderstorm gave us a good soaking and in 2023 an entire morning of bluster and squalls dampened our spirits. This year, the 2024 John Hintermister Gainesville Christmas Bird Count had dry skies, mild temperatures, and happy birders. The birds themselves put on quite the show this year: we tied our all-time high record of 175 species! And, for the first time, we topped 100,000 individuals, with 106,204 birds tallied! We should maintain our solid positions as one of the highest inland counts in the United States, and as tops for species number in Florida. Our intrepid observers were dispersed among eleven teams, each with a team captain. As we ran through the tallies of the regularly occurring species at the compilation on Sunday evening, anticipation mounted with each addition (see below) and with each species missed (Horned Grebe, American Pipit, Wil son’s Warbler, Field Sparrow, and Indigo Bunting). Excitement peaked as each team captain read the rare species found in their sector on count day. Three new species were recorded for the first time on this CBC: a Bell’s Vireo on the edge of Payne’s Prairie (Team 1), a Cape May Warbler visiting a suburban feeder in NE Gainesville (Team 10), and a pair of Red-throated Loons on Newnan’s Lake (Team 11). The day’s rarities were nicely distributed in all sectors and included: Team 1: Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Cinnamon Teal, 3 Gray-headed Swamphen, Least Flycatcher, Ash-throated Flycatcher, Bell’s Vireo; Team 2: Common Goldeneye, Ash-throated Flycatcher; Team 3: Yellow-crowned Night Heron, 5 Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creeper, Winter Wren, 2 Bachman’s Sparrow, Team 4: Red-breasted Merganser, Barn Swallow; Team 5: Ash-throated Flycatcher; Team 6 5 Golden crowned Kinglets Tropical Kingbird, Team 7: Ash-throated Flycatcher, Black-throated Green Warbler, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Team 8 Magnolia Warbler (had only been seen once before in 1990); Team 9: Western Tanager, Team 10: Golden-crowned Kinglet, Cape May Warbler, Bachman’s Sparrow; Team 11: Red-throated Loon. With those last additions, and a final perusal of documentation, we had reached our previous record, set in 2019. The bread and butter of a Christmas Bird Count, however, is determining the population status of the area’s more common species, which can aid in determining conservation planning for our mostly declining avifauna. For our 2024 count, our 120 + observers reached new all-time high counts for 16 species: Northern Pintail, American Bittern, Northern Harrier, Barred Owl, Eastern Phoebe, Vermilion Flycatcher, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Gray Catbird, House Wren, American Robin, House Finch, Black & White Warbler, Orange crowned Warbler, Yellow-breasted Chat, Swamp Sparrow. Especially notable were numbers of fruit eaters like American Robin (42,692!), Gray Catbird, and Cedar Waxwing. The numbers of flocking woodland species were also high, with records for Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Chickadee, Black-and-white Warbler, and Orange-crowned Warbler. Thankfully, Alachua County, with its expansive network of protected areas, woods, lakes, and prairies, continues to harbor important wintering populations of a wide assortment of bird species. Species list (bold-faced species = rarity; bold-faced count = high count): Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 4213, Fulvous Whistling-Duck 1, Snow Goose 5, Muscovy Duck 206, Wood Duck 229, Gadwall 33, American Wigeon 7, Mallard 10, Mottled Duck 283, Blue-winged Teal 1056, Cinnamon Teal 1, Northern Shoveler 24, Northern Pintail 985 (HC), Green-winged Teal 2890, Redhead 1, Ring-necked Duck 9863, Lesser Scaup 85, Common Goldeneye 1, Bufflehead 27, Red-breasted Merganser 3, Hooded Merganser 220, Ruddy Duck 76, Northern Bobwhite 24, Wild Turkey 125, Pied-billed Grebe 60, Rock Pigeon 24, Eurasian Collared Dove 2, Common Ground-Dove 17, Mourning Dove 491, White-winged Dove 1, Whip-Poor-Will 6, Ruby-throated Hummingbird 5, Rufous Hummingbird 1, King Rail 14, Virginia Rail 35, Sora 124, Purple Galli nule 4, Gray-headed Swamphen 3, Common Gallinule 577, American Coot 619, Limpkin 168, Sandhill Crane Page 11 The Crane Alachua Audubon Society Volume 66 Number 3 Jan – Feb 2025 1842, Killdeer 242, Least Sandpiper 31, Wilson’s Snipe 220, Long-billed Dowitcher 3, American Woodcock 6, Spotted Sandpiper 2, Greater Yellowlegs 27, Lesser Yellowlegs 12, Bonaparte’s Gull 8, Laughing Gull 18, Ring billed Gull 259, Herring Gull 2, Forster’s Tern 31, Common Loon 8, Red Throated Loon 2, Wood Stork 133, Double-crested Cormorant 788, Anhinga 409, American White Pelican 130, American Bittern 33 (HC), Least Bit tern 27, Great Blue Heron 227, Great Egret 262, Snowy Egret 177, Little Blue Heron 234, Tricolored Heron 102, Cattle Egret 309, Green Heron 38, Black-crowned Night-Heron 217, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1, White Ibis 2271, Glossy Ibis 419, Roseate Spoonbill 6, Black Vulture 451, Turkey Vulture 1399, Osprey 25, Snail Kite 112, Bald Eagle 143, Northern Harrier 111 (HC), Sharp-shinned Hawk 7, Cooper’s Hawk 17, Accipiter, sp. 2, Red shouldered Hawk 235, Red-tailed Hawk 40, Barn Owl 6, Eastern Screech-Owl 24, Great Horned Owl 42, Barred Owl 81 (HC), Belted Kingfisher 61, Red-headed Woodpecker 32, Red-bellied Woodpecker 526, Yellow-bellied Sap sucker 101, Downy Woodpecker 234, Northern Flicker 67, Pileated Woodpecker 179, American Kestrel 73, Merlin 3, Peregrine Falcon 1, Eastern Phoebe 602 (HC), Vermilion Flycatcher 7 (HC), Least Flycatcher 1, Tropical Kingbird 1, Ash-throated Flycatcher 5, Loggerhead Shrike 33, White-eyed Vireo 75, Blue-headed Vireo 82, Bell’s Vireo 1, Blue Jay 240, American Crow 813, Fish Crow 131, Crow, sp. 67, Tree Swallow 698, Barn Swallow 1, Carolina Chickadee 582 (HC), Tufted Titmouse 686 (HC), Brown-headed Nuthatch 22, Brown Creeper 1, House Wren 331 (HC), Winter Wren 1, Sedge Wren 117, Marsh Wren 54, Carolina Wren 595, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 548, Ruby-crowned Kinglet 728, Golden crowned Kinglet 11, Eastern Bluebird 325, Hermit Thrush 65, American Robin 42692 (HC), Gray Catbird 384 (HC), Brown Thrasher 23, North ern Mockingbird 194, European Starling 15, Cedar Waxwing 2038, House Sparrow 31, House Finch 173 (HC), American Goldfinch 333, Ovenbird 9, Northern Waterthrush 12, Black-and-White Warbler 175 (HC), Orange-crowned Warbler 182 (HC), Common Yellowthroat 326, American Red start 3, Northern Parula 4, Magnolia Warbler 1, Cape May Warbler 1, Palm Warbler 1197, Pine Warbler 221, Yel low-rumped Warbler 2364, Yellow throated Warbler 57, Black-throated Green Warbler 1, Prairie Warbler 3, Yellow-breasted Chat 5 (HC), Eastern Towhee 69, Chipping Sparrow 834, Vesper Sparrow 8, Savannah Sparrow 204, Grasshopper Sparrow 12, Hens low’s Sparrow 4, Bachman’s Sparrow 3, Song Sparrow 43, Lincoln’s Spar row 1, Swamp Sparrow 610 (HC), White-throated Sparrow 28, White crowned Sparrow 3, Summer Tanager 3, Western Tanager 1, Northern Cardinal 726, Painted Bunting 25, Red winged Blackbird 7517, Eastern Meadowlark 84, Rusty Blackbird 125, Common Grackle 1382, Boat-tailed Grackle 1872, Brown-headed Cowbird 351, Baltimore Oriole 42.

By Andy Kratter

The 2025 June Challenge

By Rex Rowan

The birders in June won’t be nappin’
When a rarity comes a-flappin’.
They won’t miss the word
About a good bird —
They’re twenty-four-seven WhatsAppin’!

By Mike Manetz

Mike Manetz’s annual June Challenge limerick was spot on. I won’t go so far as to say that sitting at my computer and following the discoveries on WhatsApp was as exciting as actually being in the hunt, but it was pretty exciting nonetheless! Let’s say a WhatsApp post announces a rarity at Watermelon Pond in the southwest corner of the county. Oh woe, writes John in a response, I am many miles to the east at Newnans Lake! I will jump in my car and head across the county to Watermelon Pond! Forty-five minutes later, John posts a line of sad-face emojis and writes that the Watermelon Pond bird has vanished! Ten seconds later Trudy posts a sighting of a new rarity – at Newnans Lake! John writes, “Keep it there for me!” and jumps in his car and heads back to where he started from! Will he be successful this time? Will the rarity fly away the moment he pulls into the parking lot? Stay tuned! This maddening but not even slightly unusual bird behavior, appearing and then disappearing and then appearing again and then disappearing again and then appearing somewhere else – I’m looking at you, Willet! – played out day after day on WhatsApp during June. When Bob Wallace founded the Alachua County Birding Facebook page in 2013, this is exactly what he was hoping for: you see a rarity, a few seconds later you post your sighting, your sighting is instantaneously distributed to other local birders, and twenty people are enroute before you’ve even put your phone back in your pocket. Facebook turned out to be unsuitable for this because rare bird sightings got buried under highlights from the Gator game, a GoFundMe appeal from some guy who wanted to make the glazed doughnut the State Pastry, and seventeen pictures of your sister’s cat. So it’s proper to remember and recognize that it was Peter Polshek who spent years urging us to switch over to WhatsApp before we actually did it. Peter, you have our belated thanks.
The spring that preceded this year’s Challenge was not auspicious. Actually, since “auspice” means “an observation of birds for the purpose of obtaining omens,” spring was in fact extremely auspicious: finding migrants in April and May was like pulling teeth, and that’s always a bad omen for June birding. By late March the last mud flats on Paynes Prairie’s central basin were drying up, and by June they were gone. Preston Ballard wrote, “Ben Fick and I did about a 7–8-mile hike out there from Bolen Bluff on June 3rd. There was no water and nearly no mud at all. Just a sea of grass – quite tall grass, truly a prairie….I really wonder if Levy Lake or Barr Hammock or something might have mud somewhere? At this point I’m just hoping to even get a single Semipalmated Sandpiper. If anyone knows where literally any mud would be right now please do share.” There was in fact a little bit of mud left on the Prairie, not quite an acre, running along the east side of US-441 near Bolen Bluff. Initially it attracted great numbers of water birds, mostly local nesters like Mottled Ducks, Black-necked Stilts, and herons, but also Roseate Spoonbills (up to 50!) and two Blue-winged Teal. But a few days into the Challenge it started to attract a more exotic clientele: on the 4th a Caspian Tern showed up, on the 7th a Stilt Sandpiper, and on the 12th a Short-billed Dowitcher, only the second-ever June occurrence for Alachua County. A couple of other spots held enough water for a shorebird or two: Preston found a Lesser Yellowlegs at the Hague dairy on the 1st. Richard Kaskan found a one-legged Spotted Sandpiper at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 11th, a Greater Yellowlegs at Watermelon Pond on the 14th, and a Willet at the Butler Plaza retention ponds on the 26th. That was it for migrant shorebirds, six species, which is actually quite good for a normal June Challenge; we’ve been spoiled by the abundance of the past few years.
A bigger story than the paucity of shorebirds this year was the variety of terns. If we’re going to see several species of terns during a June Challenge, we usually require a tropical storm to blow them inland. But we didn’t have a tropical storm this June, and the terns came inland anyway, maybe just out of habit at this point. First – and I need to take a deep breath before I start typing – first was a Black Tern at Newnans Lake on the 3rd, then the Caspian at the 441 mud flats on the 4th (remaining through the 8th), a Forster’s at Lake Lochloosa on the 5th, a Least and three Commons at Newnans on the 6th, another Black Tern, this one at Watermelon Pond on the 8th, another Least and five Commons at Newnans on the 9th, two more Commons at Bivens Arm on the 10th, two Forster’s at Newnans, and yet another two Commons and a Least at Lochloosa on the 11th, a Sandwich at Newnans on the 12th through the 14th (only the second June occurrence in the county), a Royal at Newnans on the 14th, another Least at Newnans on the 15th, a Forster’s at Orange Lake on the 18th, and another Black at Watermelon Pond on the 19th. Toward the end of the month Tim Hardin arranged boat trips that found a Common Tern on Lake Santa Fe on the 21st and two Royals on Santa Fe on the 28th. That’s 29 terns of seven species. All in fair weather. And I’m not counting the many “tern sp.” that were too distant to identify.
Miscellaneous rarities were few this year: a Ring-necked Duck off the 441 observation platform during most of the month and five more at Barr Hammock, a Bobolink on the 1st, only the fourth June record for the county, a Brown Pelican at Newnans on the 17th and 18th and another at Orange Lake on the 18th, and an American Goldfinch at a Micanopy feeder during the first few days of the month and then again during the last few. Two birders who weren’t participating in the Challenge – I know, crazy, right? – saw birds that no one else did: Jonathan Mays saw a Gray Catbird in southeast Gainesville on the 19th and passed the information on to me, but none of the birders who looked for it were able to relocate it. And Jean Lansford photographed a Rose-breasted Grosbeak in the Idylwild neighborhood on the 3rd, the county’s first June record ever. Ms. Lansford did not notify anyone of this. Perhaps she foresaw the stampede of birders on her front porch and decided against it.
Sadly, the ultra-rare White-breasted Nuthatch that visited Geoff Parks’ yard on May 22nd didn’t stick around to be seen during the Challenge.
As usually happens, the last five days of the month saw the beginning of fall migration: the aforementioned Willet on the 26th, a Belted Kingfisher at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 27th, a Pied-billed Grebe at Sweetwater and a Louisiana Waterthrush along the Santa Fe River on the 28th, and a trifecta on the 30th, a Louisiana Waterthrush, a Belted Kingfisher, and a Black-and-white Warbler along the Santa Fe River on the 30th.
Eight times in the previous 21 June Challenges we’ve had a two-way tie for first place. This year it happened for the ninth time, and in addition we had our first-ever two-way tie for second place. Since that’s already four people, there was no third-place winner this year. Our first-place winners were Ben Fick, who holds the record for the second-highest June Challenge total ever (145 in 2023), and, for the sixth time in a row (!), Tim Hardin. We’ll be retiring Tim’s number in a small ceremony later this year, prior to inducting him into the June Challenge Hall of Fame. Both Ben and Tim saw 131 species. Tied for second place with 129 species were Preston Ballard and Dottie Dreyer. Preston, who is currently tied with Tim Hardin for the most bird species seen in Alachua County in 2025, discovered or was involved in the discovery of some of the Challenge’s best birds, such as the Sandwich Tern and the Short-billed Dowitcher. Dottie made a real impression on me a couple of years ago when she offhandedly mentioned that she had been wandering through the pines at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve at 11:00 at night, searching for (I think) a screech owl. My mind is still boggled by that. This year we also had an entry in the under-18 category, Ollie Flanagan. Ollie is 17 and a student of another Challenger, Ellen Frattino. Ollie vows to be back next year with a driver’s license and a car and will give all of us elderly folks a run for our money.
Everyone – not just the winners – should report his or her totals to FWC’s statewide June Challenge page here. The deadline is July 7th, so hurry! (Yeah, I know. My fault.) It takes about two minutes to complete.
On to the numbers. Taking all the winning totals from 2004 to 2025 and lopping off the two lowest and the two highest, the average of the rest is 118. We first beat that average in the ninth year of the Challenge, 2012, but we’ve beaten it every year since 2019, six years in a row. This year’s were the third-highest winning totals in the 22 years that we’ve been doing this. Anyway, here are the results. Ties are listed in alphabetical order by last name.

Ben Fick  131, Tim Hardin  131, Preston Ballard  129, Dottie Dreyer  129, Raci Ulusoy  128, Eileen Ahlquist  127, Ellen Frattino  125, Sharon Kuchinski  122, Bert Foquet  120, Mark Gorday  120, Anne Casella  119, Pelin Karaca  117, Pratibha Singh  117, Kristen Suggs  116, Tina Greenberg  113, Barbara Shea  111, Renee Slaw  111, Chris Cattau  109, Richard Kaskan  107, Austin Gregg  102, Jeanette Matheny  102, Bob Carroll  101, Glenn Israel  100, Diane Pruitt  100, Jerry Pruitt  100, Eric Link  98, , Tonya Becker  96, Rex Rowan  96, Becky Enneis  95, Emily Schwartz  94, Linda Holt  93, Judith Hunt  92, John Martin  89, Will Salmon 88, Cyndi Dunphy  86, Jamielee Thompson  84, Stephanie Hornbuckle  82, Tom Wronski  81, Anne Barkdoll  54.

Under-18 Category: Oliver Flanagan  53

We also had an out-of-county entry: Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. Richard Carroll 47. (Richard, age 14, is Bob Carroll’s nephew, and this is his third June Challenge!) (Good work, Richard, and good work, Bob!)

And here’s the complete list of bird species seen in Alachua County during the Challenge (not all were seen by all participants):

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck, Canada Goose, Muscovy Duck, Wood Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Mallard, Mottled Duck, Ring-necked Duck, Northern Bobwhite, Wild Turkey, Pied-billed Grebe, Rock Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Common Ground Dove, White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Common Nighthawk, Chuck-will’s-widow, Chimney Swift, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, King Rail, Common Gallinule, American Coot, Purple Gallinule, Gray-headed Swamphen, Limpkin, Sandhill Crane, Black-necked Stilt, Killdeer, Stilt Sandpiper, Short-billed Dowitcher, Spotted Sandpiper, Lesser Yellowlegs, Willet, Greater Yellowlegs, Laughing Gull, Least Tern, Caspian Tern, Black Tern, Common Tern, Forster’s Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Wood Stork, Anhinga, Double-crested Cormorant, American White Pelican, Brown Pelican, Least Bittern, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, Snowy Egret, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, Green Heron, Great Egret, Western Cattle Egret, Great Blue Heron, White Ibis, Glossy Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Osprey, Swallow-tailed Kite, Cooper’s Hawk, Bald Eagle, Mississippi Kite, Snail Kite, Red-shouldered Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, Short-tailed Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, American Barn Owl, Eastern Screech-Owl, Great Horned Owl, Burrowing Owl, Barred Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Pileated Woodpecker, American Kestrel, Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Acadian Flycatcher, White-eyed Vireo, Yellow-throated Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Loggerhead Shrike, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Bank Swallow, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Purple Martin, Barn Swallow, Brown-headed Nuthatch, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Carolina Wren, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Eastern Bluebird, House Sparrow, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Bachman’s Sparrow, Eastern Towhee, Yellow-breasted Chat, Bobolink, Eastern Meadowlark, Orchard Oriole, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, Boat-tailed Grackle, Louisiana Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Prothonotary Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Hooded Warbler, Northern Parula, Pine Warbler, Yellow-throated Warbler, Summer Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue Grosbeak.