Category: Birding Reports

The Snail Kite was reported again this morning by Kathleen Coates of Tallahassee and Kathy Brown of Maryland. As will be obvious to those who’ve seen this bird or photographs of it, the subject line of my last birding report was incorrect. I assumed that the Snail Kite that visited us in March had returned, but the March bird was an adult male, while this one appears to be a female that’s at least a year old (it has a reddish iris, and immature birds of both sexes have a brown iris). So this is the county’s fifth ever. They’re getting to be a nuisance, aren’t they?

I made an inquiry about the Whooping Crane with the blue band that’s been hanging around Paynes Prairie since at least April 21st. Tim Dellinger of FWC replied: “The individual you saw is one of ~12 remaining birds in the Florida non-migratory population. This crane is a female and was hatched in Lake County in 2006 by captive reared cranes that had been released in central Florida in the 1990s. Since releases and research have stopped, the FWC monitors Whooping Cranes opportunistically and greatly appreciates sightings from the public.” Tim added that she is one of only three or four surviving individuals produced by a wild pair in Florida: “Yes indeed, a true Florida Whooping Crane. There’s another wild female that hangs out near Lake Kissimmee part of the year and Lake Okeechobee the other part; she was hatched in 2004. In 2009, a female fledged from a Lake Toho nest to the pasture behind the Lake Wales Cemetery, but we haven’t seen her in a while and she may be dead. Another crane fledged last year from Lake County and she is now in northern Marion County. Among all the Florida-fledged birds (around 14 over the years) all but a couple have been female. One Lake County pair continues to breed when conditions are right, they have produced at least one chick over the past few years and some have survived to fledging. Unfortunately since there are so few birds remaining they are often on their own or hanging out with Sandhills and most do not survive long. As a side note, I flew over the Lake Toho area this week and saw the mother of the bird you reported. She is 17 years old and now paired with a 16 year old male. Both have been productive in the past with other mates and hopefully they will produce a chick in the future. The oldest bird alive in the Florida non-migratory population was among the first released and she is 23 years old, hanging out on a ranch in Polk County.”

Birders don’t always pay close attention to nesting herons, egrets, or ibises, partly because we don’t want to disturb rookeries and partly because it’s very difficult to simultaneously make identifications and estimate numbers as the birds fly in and out. Maybe that’s why I can’t find any record of Glossy Ibises nesting in Alachua County more recently than a note written by the museum’s then-curator of birds, Oliver Austin, Jr., in 1967, “After a long absence the species appeared in the Lake Alice heronry in 1936, and Charles E. Doe collected 11 sets of eggs between April 23, and May 27. It last nested at Lake Alice in 1958, when five pairs were present. Some thirty pairs nested on Payne’s Prairie west of route 441 in April, 1965.” Nothing in the 51 years since then. Until, maybe, this year. On the 20th Mike Manetz wrote, “I was out at La Chua today and saw a Glossy Ibis carrying nesting material … appeared to be a stick or woody vine. I viewed it from just south of Old Sweetwater [the trail’s hairpin turn] and watched until it disappeared roughly in the direction of Sweetwater Wetlands.” On the 26th Mike was back at La Chua and again saw a Glossy carrying nesting material. There appears to be a very populous wading-bird rookery east of Sweetwater. Is anyone at FWC or Paynes Prairie monitoring it using Special Wildlife Observation Techniques™?

An Eastern Kingbird has been hanging around the La Chua observation platform for about a week. First noted by Adam and Gina Kent on May 24th, it’s been there ever since, calling, chasing other birds and being chased in turn. Typically Eastern Kingbirds are upland birds, so its odd to see one out in the middle of a freshwater marsh.

The 13th Annual June Challenge begins on Wednesday. The June Challenge, for those new to Alachua County birding, is a friendly competition in which individual contestants try to see as many species of birds in Alachua County as possible from June 1st to June 30th. Last year 46 Alachua County birders submitted lists, as did other birders from 23 other counties, mainly in Florida but including counties in Delaware, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, and New York.

The ultimate purpose of the Challenge is to inspire birders to keep going through the heat of June – to have fun, to get out in the fresh air and sunshine and to see some beautiful birds – but there are other reasons to do it. In addition to the 100 or so breeding birds we expect here, very late spring migrants and very early fall migrants have been found in June, as have coastal strays like Sandwich Tern and Willet and unexpected wanderers like Fulvous Whistling-Duck, Reddish Egret, and Snail Kite. So there are discoveries to make – and not all of them are birds; June mornings can be beautiful and lively, full of butterflies and wildflowers, and much milder in temperature than you’d expect.

As with all contests, there are rules:

1. All birds must be seen within the boundaries of Alachua County between June 1st and June 30th. (You non-Alachua birders are challenged to participate within your own counties.)
   Each bird on your list must have been seen, not merely heard.
2. The question of whether this bird or that bird is “countable” toward your total has created some confusion. Any free-flying bird is countable for the purposes of the Challenge, but keep track of how many ABA-countable (“ABA” is American Birding Association, and here’s the list of countable species) and non-countable species are on your list. Report them in this format: Total number of species seen followed by parentheses containing (number that are ABA countable / number that are not), e.g., 115 (112 / 3). The Black Swans at the Duck Pond, for instance, would be on the “uncountable” part of your list. If you have any questions about a specific bird, ask me.
3. You’re competing with other Alachua County birders to see who can amass the longest individual list – BUT send me an email if you find something good so that I can alert the other contestants and they can go out and look for it. It is, after all, a friendly competition.
4. EMAIL YOUR LIST TO ME BY MIDNIGHT ON THURSDAY, JUNE 30TH. There will then be a June Challenge party at TJC creator Becky Enneis’s house in Alachua, at which a remarkably handsome trophy and other prizes will be given out.

To help you keep track of your sightings, I’ve attached an automatic checklist that Phil Laipis created several years ago. Type in the date you saw each species in the row headed “First Seen,” using the format “6/1” for June 1st, “6/2” for June 2nd, etc., and the checklist will automatically add everything up for you (you can also use “1” or “x”). If you don’t have Excel, or you prefer keeping track on a paper copy, we’ve got some card-stock trifold checklists that you can use. Just send me your mailing address and I’ll drop one in the mailbox for you.

You can do the Challenge on your own, of course, but I’ll be at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve at 6:15 a.m. on Wednesday to jump start it with Common Nighthawk and Bachman’s Sparrow, and you’re welcome to join me, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced birder. From Longleaf we’ll go to Newnans Lake and then La Chua ($4 admission for La Chua), where Mike Manetz tells me the low water levels have attracted some shorebirds. You should be home by lunchtime with 40-50 species on that checklist! Directions to Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve: From Gainesville, take State Road 20 (Hawthorne Road) east. Measuring from Waldo Road, at 4.4 miles you’ll pass Powers Park, and shortly thereafter you’ll cross the bridge over Prairie Creek. Three and a half miles after that, turn right onto County Road 325 and proceed 2.3 miles to the Longleaf parking lot on the right.

Anyway, if you win, you get The June Challenge trophy, two and a half feet tall and lovingly crafted from the finest wood-like material. Your name and your accomplishment will be engraved in the purest imitation gold and affixed to the trophy, a memorial that will last throughout all eternity, or until someone drops it onto a hard surface. You keep the trophy at your house for a year, contemplating the evidence of your great superiority to all other birders, and then the following June you either win again or you sadly pass the trophy on to the next June Challenge champion and sink back into the common mass of birderdom.

Hints for new Challengers: Bird as much as you can during the first few days and last few days of the month, to get late spring and early fall migrants. Check the big lakes repeatedly (especially Newnans and Lochloosa) for coastal strays like gulls, terns, and pelicans. Check your email inbox to learn what other people are seeing and for tips on where to go. I apologize in advance for the many birding reports you’ll get in early June…

Please join us for The 13th Annual June Challenge. Good luck to all!

Just now (8:36) got this email from Dalcio Dacol: “Rex, Snail Kite at SWP now, south side cell 2!”

You know what to do.

It’s late May, isn’t it? Just about a week from June. What happens in June? Something. Can’t remember. I’m sure it will come to me.

On behalf of a Cuban bird researcher, Gina Kent asks, “Do you know someone with a house/condo/apartment/room available in July for a Cuban family that has just recently moved to Florida? Ariam Jimenez is a colleague and friend, the recent head chair of the biology department at the University of Havana (specialty in bird research) and he and his wife and 4-year-old son are in the process of getting work status to stay here in Florida. We would love to help them settle into Gainesville with a ‘head start’ living situation while they get their feet on the ground. It would be very helpful if there were a place that needed house sitting. Even just one month would be a great help to this wonderful, professional, and responsible family.” You can reach Gina at ginakent@arcinst.org

Mike Manetz saw the season’s first Roseate Spoonbill flying over Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 20th. There were two subsequent sightings on the 21st, possibly involving the same bird, one at La Chua by Adam Zions and one at Bivens Arm lake by Adam and Gina Kent.

Tom Wronski had a spectacular visitor to his back yard overlooking the south rim of the Prairie on May 21st: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26875790060/in/dateposted-public/

Something to watch for: Cliff Swallows – which are common everywhere in the United States but the southeast – have slowly been establishing themselves as a breeding species in Florida, both south of us and in the Panhandle. There are currently two to four nests under the State Road 50 bridge over the St. Johns River on the Orange/Brevard county line, and at Lake Seminole in Gadsden County (about 35 miles northwest of Tallahassee), Andy Wraithmell has reported, “at least 21 active nests this year up from at least 9 active nests in 2015.” Won’t be long before they show up here. Maybe they’re here already!

Back in 1995 our local backyard guru Ron Robinson almost got himself a TV show called “Backyard Birding with Ron Robinson.” It never came to pass, but Ron recently had the VHS of the promotional trailer digitized, and you can see it (featuring Ron in his mid-40s) on YouTube. You’ll have to endure a minute-and-a-half intro with a Kenny Loggins soundtrack, or you can just advance to 1:30. Those of you who have taken the community education birding class may recognize Kathy Haines in the red plaid blouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNdZuJnDFh8

The American Ornithologists’ Union Check-list Committee will release revisions to its Check-list of North American Birds this summer (probably in July), and some changes have been proposed, for instance lumping Hoary and Common Redpolls and Caribbean and American Coots, but recognizing a new scrub-jay and a new meadowlark and splitting Leach’s Storm-Petrel into three species. Plus various other forms of taxonomic tomfoolery. If you’d like to look them over – keeping in mind that these are just proposals and haven’t been accepted yet – here you go. Each begins with a summary of the proposals and then, as you scroll down, each proposal is described in detail.
http://checklist.aou.org/assets/proposals/PDF/2016-A.pdf
http://checklist.aou.org/assets/proposals/PDF/2016-B.pdf
http://checklist.aou.org/assets/proposals/PDF/2016-C.pdf

As you may have read in Sunday’s Gainesville Sun (link to article), the Department of Transportation is planning a new highway that may ultimately extend as a toll road from Tampa to Jacksonville through northern Marion and east Putnam and Clay Counties. Here’s the project website: http://www.i75relief.com/ Joyce King of Santa Fe Audubon writes that the map which I’ve attached to this email, “shows where the extension of the ‘purple swath’ on the [web site’s] map will go. From Highway 326 just north of Ocala east through Putnam County on Highway 315, north to Highway 21 north of Keystone Heights, to join the First Coast Expressway at Middleburg. This route will not show on any map – it’s our prediction based on the inevitable extension of the purple swath to join with the First Coast Expressway in Middleburg. A new task force will be appointed to work on the extension into Putnam and Clay Counties (we think).” And here’s the page that shows where you can attend meetings to give input (note that meetings will be held in Gainesville on June 7th, Ocala on June 8th, and Lecanto on June 9th): http://www.i75relief.com/meetings.html

Friday the 13th is supposed to be unlucky, but…

Mike Manetz found two Gull-billed Terns at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the evening of the 13th. He wrote, “Both were adult birds in fresh plumage: upperwings clean pale blue-gray, tail slightly forked. Full black cap; bill all black, relatively short and blunt. Pair was flying in low circles over holding pond, seen well in scope.” This is either the seventh or the ninth occurrence of this species in Alachua County, depending on whether you believe David Johnston’s Christmas Bird Count sightings from 1966 and 1973 (I’m inclined not to). Mike found the terns while making a “forced march” around all three cells in search of shorebirds. He succeeded in finding 2 Semipalmated Sandpipers, as well as a Least and a Spotted, plus 35 Bobolinks.

The spring migration has been winding down for a couple of weeks, though American Redstarts are still passing through. But the thing about migration, the thing that makes it exciting, is this: You Never Know. Something unexpected could turn up at any time. Adam and Gina Kent were birdwatching from their SE Gainesville porch on the morning of the 13th when they saw a Blackburnian Warbler, only the third ever spotted here in spring migration. Adam got a picture: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26395968153/in/dateposted-public/

The Gull-billeds and the Blackburnian weren’t the only good birds seen on Friday the 13th. Jonathan Mays was southbound on US-441 at a little after nine when he saw a dark-form Short-tailed Hawk kettling with Turkey Vultures near Lake Wauberg. And Trina Anderson photographed a breeding-plumage Stilt Sandpiper along the La Chua Trail. She also saw 7 Semipalmated Sandpipers, a Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Spotted Sandpipers, 3 Black-necked Stilts, and 3 King Rails.

Imagine how much more Mike and Adam and Gina and Jonathan and Trina would have seen if it hadn’t been Friday the 13th!

A lot of female birders (not all) don’t like birding alone. It occurs to me that Barbara Muschlitz had a standing field trip for women, mostly birding friends of hers, who would meet on each Wednesday morning, confirming time and place by email ahead of time. It would be fairly easy to set up one or more Facebook groups where friends could do something like this, meeting once or twice weekly, and arranging time and place through Facebook. If you’d like to get out more, but don’t want to go by yourself, give it a try. If you’re like me – so far behind the curve that you can’t even see the curve anymore – and you’re not on Facebook, then you’ll have to use a paleolithic method of communication like email or telephone. But I’m sure arrangements can be made even under such primitive conditions.

Ron Robinson called my attention to an odd sight at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 6th. Two very young Common Gallinule chicks were following a parent bird around, begging, and it was pecking at them irritably, even seizing them in its bill and holding them underwater. Steve Nesbitt told me once that some birds are habitually good parents who successfully raise chicks to independence year after year, while others are poor parents whose young perish more often than not. I’m not betting any money on this bird.

Our paltry migration seems to be winding down. I’ve always thought that Gainesville’s spring migration peaks in the last few days of April, but a look at eBird reveals that this year the largest variety and numbers (relatively speaking) passed through much earlier, during the nine days of April 15-23. The high point was April 16th, when the cumulative total of migrants reported to eBird included 3 Cape May Warblers, a Blackpoll Warbler, 4 American Redstarts, 16 Black-throated Blue Warblers, 11 Worm-eating Warblers, 1 Louisiana Waterthrush, 8 Northern Waterthrushes, and 4 Prairie Warblers. Only three Rose-breasted Grosbeaks were reported this spring, and all occurred during the same April 15-23 window.

Interestingly, a handful of unusual backyard birds departed during that same nine-day span. A Hermit Thrush that visited Rich Lewis’s NW Gainesville feeder almost daily beginning about February 10th, dining on chopped suet and bark butter, was last seen on April 20th. A White-crowned Sparrow that Ron Robinson first noticed at his west Gainesville feeder on March 21st left on April 21st. The Western Tanager that returned for a third year to Jack and Mary Lynch’s High Springs back yard on March 2nd was last seen on April 20th (same as last year), and the one that Sarah Raynierson first noticed at her SW Gainesville home around March 15th was last seen on April 17th.

There are still some migrants around. American Redstarts are still fairly common; eBird shows 6 reported on the 30th and another 6 on the 1st. The only two Scarlet Tanagers found in the county were fairly late: Adam Kent saw one in NW Gainesville on the 28th and Jonathan Mays saw one in SE Gainesville on the 1st. Bobolinks, whose passage normally peaks a little after most migrants’, showed high counts of 290 by Dean, Ben, and Sam Ewing on the 27th, 350 by Caroline Poli on the 28th, and 220 by Cindy Boyd on the 29th, all at Sweetwater Wetlands Park.

Jonathan Mays found six species of shorebirds at Sweetwater on the 30th, though the numbers were less than impressive: 2 Semipalmated Plovers, 2 Semipalmated Sandpipers, 2 Spotted Sandpipers, 1 Least Sandpiper, 1 Greater Yellowlegs, and 1 Killdeer. Shorebirds are usually fairly late migrants, though – their tundra breeding grounds are still frozen, so they’re in no particular hurry – and we may see more of them during the next two weeks. In fact, White-rumped Sandpipers often don’t make their first appearance until May.

Andy Kratter’s loon-migration watch posted its smallest total ever, with a final count of 395 loons. Andy comments, “I think that the warm winter may have kept some birds from reaching the Gulf, as was true for ducks, etc.” His second-lowest total was 507 in 2009; the highest he’s recorded was 895 in 2014. The median passage date this year was April 4th, a little late; the average is March 30th.

The Vaux’s Swifts seem to be gone. eBird clearly shows how interest in these birds waned as time went by: in December, birders submitted 92 Vaux’s-related checklists, in January they submitted 57, in February 22, and in March only 6. The last positive sighting at Dauer Hall came on the evening of March 21st, when Ben Ewing estimated 10 Vaux’s calling among a larger group of Chimney Swifts. There were only two later attempts to see the birds: Wendy Meehan and Bonnie Jenks reported three swifts whose “vocalizing sounded different…faster, high pitched,” on April 10th, and on the 15th Graham Williams looked for them but found that he couldn’t hear anything over the construction noise! Afterward there were two sightings at Sweetwater Wetlands Park, three birds reported on April 6th by Dean, Sam, and Ben Ewing, “foraging over cell one with Tree Swallows, identified by distinctive vocalizations,” and three reported by Danny Rohan on April 21st that “vocalized very clearly.”

Cedar Waxwings are still around in small numbers. They arrived early this winter, with several flocks reported in November, but their numbers struck me as low all season long. Most sightings involved flocks of fewer than 100 birds, and the few really large counts (500-1000) were restricted to January.

Charlie Pedersen, biologist at Goethe State Forest, writes, “Two Red-cockaded Woodpecker clusters on Goethe State Forest near the Great Florida Birding Trail site are nesting now. I’d prefer people didn’t visit until they hatch, but from the weekend of May 7th on it should be fine; that is after predicted hatch day. You can tell the nest trees because they are wrapped in tin foil. The clusters are #67 on Beehive Road by the metal interpretive sign and Boo-boo Cluster on the the corner of North Gasline Road and Beehive Road. If folks have questions they can look on the Great Florida Birding Trail web site or call the Goethe State Forest office at (352) 465-8585.” Charlie thoughtfully provided this illustrated driving tour for those who might wish to visit: “This Great Florida Birding Trail sign is located at 29.160528 North and -82.598953 West on Goethe State Forest’s North Gasline Road. If you stand next to the sign and turn west you will see this adorable forked tree handsomely wrapped in tin foil. That is the nest tree for the Boo-boo Cluster. If you hop back in your car and follow that Birding Trail sign, you will go down Bee Hive Road until you come to this interpretive sign where you will find the #67 Cluster nest tree.”

There are still a few Alachua Audubon field trips this spring: Loblolly Woods with Sam Ewing on the 7th, Sweetwater Wetlands Park with Debbie Segal on the 8th, Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve with Michael Drummond on the 14th, and a Breeding Bird Atlas trip with Adam Kent on the 15th; and then on June 1st I’ll lead the June Challenge kickoff. That’ll be it until September. The field trip schedule may be perused here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/classes-field-trips/

The Wednesday Wetlands Walks at Sweetwater Wetlands Park will continue every Wednesday through the end of May. Just show up at 8:30 and join us. May 2nd was the first anniversary of the park’s opening, by the way.

Bob Carroll invites you to Stick It To The Workin’ Man by attending his Third Thursday Birding Club, which will be meeting this month on the *FIRST* Thursday: “Our final Third Thursday for the season will be a Breeding Bird Atlas field trip/demonstration led by Adam Kent. We’ll meet at 7:30 on Thursday morning, May 5th, in the southwest corner of the Target parking lot at Archer Road and I-75. Adam says, ‘We will learn about atlasing and look for evidence of breeding birds. It’s a fun way to get a new perspective on birding.’ Adam says we should be finished and back in town by 11:00. We will then go to Peach Valley for a late breakfast/early lunch. Please let me know if you’re coming. I’d like to give Adam an idea of how large the group will be.” Contact Bob at gatorbob23@yahoo.com

This is a beautiful drone video showing aerial photography of the La Chua Trail: https://vimeo.com/163424320

There’s a great “birder photo” on this blog post, but I’m not sure I’d ever show it to a non-birder. The post tells of a Swainson’s Warbler found in Manhattan’s Central Park a few days ago, and the photo shows a bunch of birders sprawled on the walkway, trying to see it inside a hedge (third photo down): http://welshbirder.blogspot.com/2016/04/swainsons-warbler-in-central-park.html

I always like looking at bird eyes, as you know if you’ve gone on my field trips. White Ibis have baby-blue eyes, the eyes of Double-crested Cormorants are azure, the eyes of American Coots are ruby red. Here’s the blood-red eye of a Eurasian Collared-Dove, posted by the bird banders at Skokholm Island, off the coast of Wales. I enjoyed scrolling through the bird photos on their Twitter page: https://twitter.com/SkokholmIsland

Mike Manetz called at about 9:15 this morning from the Bolen Bluff observation platform. He and Frank and Irina Goodwin were looking at a Whooping Crane northwest of the tower. Frank got a photo that shows a blue (and white?) band on the bird’s left leg: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/25957033733/in/dateposted-public/ This is the first Whooper in Gainesville since one that lingered along the La Chua Trail last June and July.

Mike visited Palm Point and Lakeshore Drive on the 20th and found a Cape May Warbler and a Blackpoll Warbler, two species that we can expect to see only during spring migration, as well as an Ovenbird, two Northern Waterthrushes, and a Worm-eating Warbler. A couple of Bonaparte’s Gulls were lingering on the lake. Bobolinks are being seen at Sweetwater Wetlands Park in small numbers – Chris Hooker tallied 31 on the 20th – but should become more numerous later in the month. Listen for its song, which Roger Tory Peterson evocatively described as “ecstatic and bubbling.”

Frank Goodwin photographed a female Red-breasted Merganser at Sweetwater on the afternoon of the 18th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/26285768580/in/dateposted-public/ It was gone by the next morning, when Mike Manetz overcame a cold long enough to trudge out to where it had been seen:

Summer birds are showing up. There are plenty of Purple Gallinules and Least Bitterns at Sweetwater; John Hintermister found 22 gallinules and 14 bitterns on the 20th. Indigo Buntings, Blue Grosbeaks, Orchard Orioles, and Yellow-billed Cuckoos are being reported all over the county. Felicia Lee had the spring’s first Acadian Flycatcher at San Felasco on the 17th, and three days later Caroline Poli counted four. Barbara Shea had the county’s first Eastern Wood-Pewee of the spring at San Felasco on the 20th. I’m still not seeing a big jump in Mississippi Kite numbers, but my heart gladdened to see one circling over my NE Gainesville neighborhood on the 20th.

Geoff Parks has noticed a singing American Robin in his NE Gainesville neighborhood since early April. If it nests, this will be the third or fourth year in a row that robins have nested in Gainesville.

Speaking of nesting birds, I’ve had mockingbird and chickadee fledglings in my yard for the past few days.

I got one response to my question about starlings in the last birding report, so I’ll try a different species. How about the one shown in the photo above? Eurasian Collared-Dove is a West Asian species introduced to North America in 1974, when a large number of birds escaped from a private home in the Bahamas during an attempted burglary. Within a few years they made it to South Florida and began working their way north. Alachua County’s first was probably the “Streptopelia, sp.” seen by Rob Norton near the intersection of 441 and Williston Road on the December 16, 1990 Christmas Bird Count. However the species wasn’t positively confirmed in the county until John Hintermister saw one standing in the middle of County Road 235 just north of Alachua on March 30, 1992 (which I have no trouble remembering because my darling daughter Sarah was born on the same day). Rare at first – you had to drive out to the town of Alachua to see them in the mid-90s – their numbers suddenly ballooned in the late 90s. Here’s a paragraph from the March 1998 issue of my old newsletter, The Alachua County Birder: “Until Matt Williams reported 39 Eurasian Collared-Doves roosting in one of the Beef Teaching Unit buildings during the CBC, I’d thought there were probably about 20 in the entire county. So in February I telephoned Christina Romagosa, who is studying the dove’s expansion throughout the United States, and asked how many there were, to her knowledge, in our area. After confessing that she’d been as taken aback by Matt’s report as I was (‘had a cow,’ was, I think, the technical phrase she used), having never seen more than 13 together at once (at Butler Plaza), she estimated 50 to 60 for the Gainesville area, and 70 to 100 for the county as a whole.” They were a fairly common and widespread bird for a while, but not any more. Sightings at the Hague Dairy, formerly one of their strongholds, have been occasional at best during the past five years (no double digits since 2010), and sightings anywhere in the county are usually restricted to ones and twos. The only recent exceptions to this were the 21 birds that Adam and Gina Kent found south of downtown Gainesville on the 20 December 2015 CBC and the 64 counted by John Martin at the Beef Teaching Unit on the 15 December 2013 CBC. Does anyone know of any other concentrations of this species in the county, or was their population boom followed by an equally-quick decline?

I’m thinking that the persistence of many fall-migrant warblers throughout last winter – a Worm-eating Warbler, 3 Nashville Warblers, 6 American Redstarts, a Black-throated Blue Warbler, 2 Black-throated Green Warblers, and a bunch of Northern Parulas – is connected with the early spring migration. We’ve had early-arrival records set this spring by Barn Swallow, Yellow-throated Vireo, Chimney Swift, Worm-eating Warbler, and Blackpoll Warbler, and on the 15th several birders reported Bobolinks at Sweetwater Wetlands Park, by one day another early record for the county. Dick Bartlett got a photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26447991395/in/dateposted-public/

Though Phoebe Gordon reported four Mississippi Kites over Gainesville High School on April 1st, daily sightings didn’t commence until April 10th and 11th, when Trina Anderson saw one over last year’s nest tree in her SW Gainesville neighborhood. However sightings are still geographically scattered; I suspect that the majority of birds will arrive when they usually do, after April 20th.

We’ve got two Western Tanagers visiting feeders in Alachua County this spring. The first is at the Lynch home in High Springs, which it likes so well that it’s come for three years in a row now. The second is in SW Gainesville, where it’s visiting the home of Sarah Reynierson, who obtained a photo on the 11th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26197154730/in/dateposted-public/

We see lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers down here, but we don’t see many that look like this one, photographed by Glenn Price at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 15th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26452047215/in/dateposted-public/

Saturday’s field trip to Cedar Key wasn’t rained out, as had been forecast, but we had to contend with very strong winds. Birds were therefore fewer and harder to find than would otherwise have been the case. We saw a handful of Cape May, Blackpoll, and Prairie Warblers, but only one Rose-breasted Grosbeak (briefly) and only one Indigo Bunting. No tanagers, no orioles. Two or three Bronzed Cowbirds that have been visiting a feeder at a house behind the museum obliged us with an appearance, and we had quick flyovers by a Reddish Egret and a Merlin at the airfield, but we saw nothing else out of the ordinary.

As I explained a couple of months ago, I’m writing a book on the birds of Alachua County considered from a historical perspective. Occasionally I’ll use this birding report to ask questions about one species or another. Today it’s the European Starling. Although Oliver Austin, the former curator of birds at the museum, claimed that starlings arrived here in the 1930s, that appears to have been a guess. The catalog entry accompanying the earliest Alachua County specimen in the museum, a male collected “three miles west of Gainesville” by J.C. Dickinson, Jr., on 13 Oct 1946, notes, “New county record.” In the course of a 2001 telephone call, Dr. Dickinson informed me that he had shot the bird off a telephone line along Archer Road (“I did all my bird identifications along the barrel of a shotgun”), and he confirmed that it had been the first sighting in the county. The population subsequently grew, as it did everywhere. Though it was missed on the first Christmas Bird Count (1957), it’s been recorded on every one since, sometimes in high numbers. In the eighteen years between 1968 and 1985, there were nine years during which a thousand or more starlings were counted on the CBC, with a maximum of 4,367 in 1976. Thankfully, however, their numbers have dwindled. Over the past twenty years, the largest CBC count has been 538 and the average count has been 218. Over the past ten years, the high count has been 134 and the average count has been 80. The reasons for this decline are not clear to me, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. All I’m going to ask is this: Where are all these starlings hanging out? Where do you find starlings in Alachua County, especially in large numbers? I see them at the dairy, I see a few around Citizens Field, but that’s about it. Where are they?

Are you anxious to rub the noses of the Gainfully Employed in the fact that you’re retired? Then Third Thursday Birding is for you! Bob Carroll writes, “Our April 21st Third Thursday field trip will be to Cedar Key. With a little luck, we should be in the heart of spring migration. Early weather predictions are terrific. The morning will start off in the upper 60s and the high for the day will be 81 with a 0% chance of rain. Let’s hope that prediction holds up [Editor’s Note: Ha ha ha!]. Also, the tides should work out for us. Low tide is at 8:18, but it won’t be a really low sea and then will rise throughout the morning. So mid morning should be good at Shell Mound for shorebirds, and early afternoon will be good for gulls and terns on the docks near the airport. Now if the warblers, tanagers and other migrants will cooperate, it should be a terrific day. My plan is to gather in the Target parking lot on Archer Road at about 7:00. We’ll go to Shell Mound first (probably at about 8:30), then to the church to check the mulberry trees. Then we’ll hit the cemetery and museum grounds. Based on the time and the birding, we may also make a stop at the Trestle Trail or drive some of the neighborhoods. Lunch will be at Steamers on Dock Street. We’ll decide on a time once we see how the birding is going. I expect to get back to Gainesville late in the afternoon. It would help to know how many people will be joining us at Steamers. If you’re planning to have lunch with us, please let me know. And also remember to save May 5 for a Breeding Bird Atlas field trip with Adam Kent. I’ll send you details later next week.” Bob can be reached at gatorbob23@yahoo.com

Karl Miller writes, “I am looking for volunteers to help with color band resighting surveys for Florida Scrub-Jays in Ocala National Forest. We are looking for experienced birdwatchers who can walk two or three miles without any physical limitations. Volunteers will work in teams of two or three, and will be driven to the site and accompanied during the survey by FWC personnel. Dates of the survey are April 23, 25, and 26, and they can come for any of those days they wish. It’s a great time of year to be out in the scrub and see nesting kestrels and other cavity-nesting birds too!” If you’re interested, contact Karl at karl.miller@myfwc.com or 352-575-3023.

Gainesville’s own Gina Kent is the cover girl for the April-May issue of the Nature Conservancy’s magazine.

You can read about Mac Stone’s photography for this article, and see some of the photos that didn’t get used, at this link: http://blog.nature.org/science/magazine/outtakes-going-great-heights-swallow-tailed-kites-birds-photography/

Spring migrants are beginning to pour through. American Redstarts have been reported daily since April 1st. On the 6th Ron Robinson had two males in his birdbath at once: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/25713758333/in/dateposted-public/

John Hintermister had the spring’s first Worm-eating Warbler at San Felasco Hammock on March 29th, by four days a new early record for the county, and on the following day two were seen, one by Pamela Graber at San Felasco and one by Trina Anderson at her home in SW Gainesville. Becky Enneis had one at her drip pool on April 6th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26224124412/in/dateposted-public/

Blackpoll Warblers have also checked in earlier than usual. Felicia Lee reported one at San Felasco on April 3rd, by eight days an early record for this normally-late spring migrant, and Matt O’Sullivan saw one on the UF campus on the 5th, which would have been an early record if not for Felicia’s sighting. We don’t usually see our first of the year until about April 20th, and most sightings are in May.

Jessica Hightower had the spring’s first Blue Grosbeak at La Chua on April 3rd. That’s another pretty early bird. Until a few years ago the early record was April 10th.

Lloyd Davis had the season’s first Orchard Oriole singing at La Chua on the 4th, and on the 7th Debbie Segal saw several more: ” I noticed a lot of bird activity in a large oak tree in a NW Gainesville neighborhood this morning about 8 am. As I looked through my binocs, I saw one Orchard Oriole after another, both males and females, actively feeding in the tree. There were at least 6 but could have been more.”

The spring loon migration seems to be running behind this year: 373 flyover loons have been counted over Gainesville as of April 8th, compared to 620 as of April 8, 2015, and 702 as of April 8, 2014. But in 2013, only 234 loons had been tallied by April 8th; 239 more were counted after that date. Andy is hoping that he’ll have a late movement of bird this year as well. You can help by watching the sky during the second hour after sunrise. Marvin Smith photographed three very northerly migrants over Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia, at 9:30 in the morning on April 3rd. He was able to get a nice photo of one of them: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26220158995/in/dateposted-public/

Speaking of good photos, Ron Robinson was able to get an excellent picture of a Chuck-will’s-widow, often heard but rarely seen, on his property west of Gainesville on April 3rd: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26194194076/in/dateposted-public/

Alice Reakes saw a pair of Sandhill Cranes with a recent hatchling on April 3rd: “Driving south across Paynes Prairie I saw a pair of Sandhill Cranes with a little chick in the first pasture on the west side of the 441, north rim. I was checking out all the new baby calves in that pasture and happened to see the cranes.” She said the youngster was still downy and about ten inches tall. Jennifer Donsky saw a Sandhill sitting on a nest in the Savannah Pointe neighborhood, on the edge of Paynes Prairie, on April 7th.

Fred Bassett recently sent out his Southeast regional hummingbird-banding report for winter 2015-16. “Our Hummingbird Research banding crew has completed another winter hummingbird banding season in the Southeast. Fred Dietrich, Mary Wilson, Donna Carroll, and I combined to band 132 hummingbirds of eight species. Those included 75 Ruby-throated, 26 Rufous, 22 Black-chinned, 4 Buff-bellied, 2 Calliopes, 1 Allen’s, 1 Broad-tailed, and 1 White-eared. The lower-than-average number of banded birds was driven by the lowest number of Rufous since 1999/2000. Without the highest number ever of Ruby-throated, it would have been a dismal season….I think the decrease in Rufous over the past four winters is part of a natural cycle I have observed twice in the past 20 years. I’m looking forward to an increase next winter.”

This weekend’s Alachua Audubon field trips include one that involves a fairly long drive (36 miles, 50 minutes) to Fort White Wildlife and Environmental Area in northern Gilchrist County for a three-mile stroll through the pinewoods on Saturday the 9th, and a walk along the La Chua Trail on Sunday the 10th. Details are on the Audubon web site: https://alachuaaudubon.org/classes-field-trips/

Join Alachua Audubon on Wednesday, April 13th at 6:30 pm for the annual pot luck dinner celebration and help us welcome our newest AAS Board Members. This event will be held at Bubba and Ingrid Scales’s house at 3002 SW 1st Way, Gainesville, located in the Colclough Hills neighborhood across from Sweetwater Wetlands Park between south Main Street and Williston Road. (Look for the AAS signs!) Bring some food to share and a drink of choice, and enjoy visiting with Alachua Audubon members and the Board of Directors.

(There’s a frequently-used abbreviation on the internet: TL;DNR, which means “Too long; did not read.” That’s all I seem to write anymore, TL;DNR stuff. You’ve been warned.)

The wind and the rain have knocked down most of the remaining wild plum, redbud, and dogwood flowers, so that part of spring is over.

The Snail Kite hasn’t been seen since March 23rd.

Trina Anderson found a White-faced Ibis at Chapmans Pond on March 24th. It was seen again by Adam Zions on the 25th but has not been reported to eBird since then, either because higher water levels at the pond have driven it elsewhere or because no one has been looking for it.

Yve Morrell, visiting from Naples, found and photographed a single Gray-headed Swamphen at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on March 27th. It was the first time a swamphen had been seen there since February 21st. It showed up again for the Wednesday Wetlands Walk on March 30th, along with a beautiful white-morph Short-tailed Hawk.

A Black-throated Blue Warbler reported by Karl Miller at San Felasco’s Moonshine Creek Trail on March 29th was heard only, which is too bad; it was the earliest recorded in Alachua County since Frank Chapman shot one on April 5, 1887.

Migrating loons are still flying over on fair mornings, from the Gulf to the Atlantic en route to northern nesting grounds. I counted 38 going over my back yard this morning between 8:26 and 9:00, 29 of them in the five minutes between 8:40 and 8:44.

Lots of locally-breeding neotropical migrants have arrived in the past two weeks:

Sam Ewing heard a Red-eyed Vireo singing in his NW Gainesville neighborhood on March 19th. Caroline Poli reported 7 at Camps Canal on the 26th, and on the 27th Bryan Tarbox and friends reported 10 at Bolen Bluff. Keep in mind that Blue-headed Vireos sing at this time of year and can be mistaken for Red-eyeds.

Hooded Warblers have been here since at least the 20th, when Mike Manetz found 3 along San Felasco’s Moonshine Creek Trail. Caroline Poli had 6 there on the 24th. But in migration they can show up anywhere; witness the one seen by Bryan Tarbox in the Duck Pond neighborhood on the 28th and the one seen by Geoff Parks at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 29th.

Lloyd Davis photographed the spring’s first Eastern Kingbird at Cellon Creek Boulevard on March 22nd. Andy Kratter saw another during a SE Gainesville loon watch on the morning of the 26th.

Single Indigo Buntings appeared in NW Gainesville, SW Gainesville, and along the western shore of Newnans Lake on the 22nd.

Only a couple of Prothonotary Warblers have shown up so far. Caroline Poli found one at San Felasco Hammock on March 24th and Adam Kent found one in NW Gainesville on the 30th.

Summer Tanagers wintered here in large numbers, and some of these wintering birds continued to be seen through the end of March. The first spring arrivals were one that Caroline Poli found at Camps Canal on March 26th, and then several reports on the 29th: Jonathan Mays reported one from his SE Gainesville home and another while running on the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail, John Hintermister reported four at San Felasco Hammock, and then there were two reports from visiting birder Simon Tam, including one bird at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens and four at Paynes Prairie.

Great Crested Flycatchers are extraordinarily frustrating to track. The first of the spring *normally* shows up about March 25th. Birders report lots of heard-only Great Cresteds in early and mid-March, and repeated reminders that White-eyed Vireos can mimic a Great Crested Flycatcher’s wheep! rarely motivate them to track down these heard birds to confirm their identities. This year the eBird filter somehow got reset to mid-freakin’-March, meaning that people who recorded Great Crested Flycatcher prior to March 25th were not even prompted to write down details of their observations. Did they hear it? Did they see it? We don’t know! Great Crested Flycatchers shouldn’t *normally* be here before the last week in March! If you hear one, track it down! Okay? Okay! And yet I know I’ll be saying the same thing next year, because no one seems to remember this. Anyway … looking at the increasingly-dubious eBird output, the first date on which there were *several* reports of Great Crested Flycatcher was March 27th, when they were seen or heard in four locations.

Listen, develop your own knowledge and expertise of local birds. Don’t depend on the eBird filters to tell you what’s early and what’s late. The filters often seem to be messed up anyway. And there’s lots of bad data in eBird. Lots and lots and lots. Really, lots. You’d be surprised.

Carol and Ching-Tzu Huang tell me that there’s a family of Great Horned Owls in the pines behind Trinity United Methodist Church at 4000 NW 53rd Avenue. Evening is the best time to see them.

As of March 21st there were still Vaux’s Swifts at UF’s Dauer Hall, but according to Ben Ewing they were mixed in with about 40 Chimney Swifts that were spending their first night in the chimney. Ben wrote, “Heard calling among the Chimney Swifts. It was impossible to pick out how many birds there were, though I suspect all were still there. Some of the swifts seemed to be slimmer and smaller, these may have been the Vaux’s.”

Saturday’s walk at Watermelon Pond fielded only a couple of local participants, as well as a group of traveling birders from Bradenton. We hiked from the boat ramp along the firebreak toward the Fox Squirrel Loop, but a light rain began and the satellite showed a huge mass of green, yellow, and orange bearing down on us from the west, so we turned back to the parking lot. We’d seen nothing more remarkable than a trio of Prairie Warblers in a single waxmyrtle bush – my first migrants of the spring – but we assumed that we were about to be drenched with rain, so the Bradenton folks headed home. Alan Shapiro then suggested that he and I could keep birding as long as the rain held off. So we drove up to the north entrance of the Wildlife and Environmental Area and had a very nice couple of hours, because the rain never materialized after all. We saw the usual birds there – American Kestrel, Eastern Bluebird, Red-headed Woodpecker, Eastern Meadowlark, Yellow-throated Vireo – but we also found two singing Bachman’s Sparrows and a Loggerhead Shrike sitting on a nest, so it turned out to be an excellent day.

It’s cam time! Every spring various organizations put up nest cams, which show adults brooding eggs and feeding chicks, and then the chicks fledging (if everything goes well, which it doesn’t always). This year you can choose from the DC Eagle Cam, situated in a tulip tree in the National Arboretum – http://dceaglecam.eagles.org/ – or the Kestrel Cam in a nest box in Boise, Idaho – http://kestrel.peregrinefund.org/webcams – or the two Barn Owl cams, in two nest boxes in Stockton, California – http://www.portofstockton.com/daggettrd-owlcam

If you’re not joining the Alachua Audubon walk to Fort White Wildlife and Environmental Area on April 9th, you might be interested in the annual Alligator Lake Spring Festival in Lake City: https://cdn-az.allevents.in/banners/41a484be824484a11b12083a379b6f37

Also, Alachua Conservation Trust is holding a Moth Night – blacklighting for moths – at the Prairie Creek Lodge on Sunday, April 3rd. More information here.

Alachua Audubon has a new front page: https://alachuaaudubon.org/ Also, check out the Best Birding Sites page, which now features photos: https://alachuaaudubon.org/best-birding-sites/