Category: Birding Reports

Sam Ewing just informed me that an immature male Black-chinned Hummingbird is visiting feeders at the family’s NW Gainesville home. Anyone who’d like to see the bird is welcome to drop by. He writes, “It has been visiting our feeders regularly this morning, and has definitely been around at least since yesterday, but I had assumed it was a Ruby-throated. It is just getting a few purple gorget feathers. If anyone wants to come over to try to see it, feel free to do so anytime! No need to call or email ahead of time. It has been coming regularly so far, so I would guess it will at least be around most of the day. We will be home pretty much all day today as well as Saturday. It is visiting at least one of the feeders on our front porch, usually the one on the left when looking at our house from the road. It perches in the bush on the west side of our front porch (a camellia). Our address is 2610 NW 11th Avenue.” From NW 16th Avenue, take NW 25th Terrace south to NW 11th Avenue and turn right; the house is halfway down the street on the right. Thanks to Sam and to his family.

The Florida Conservation Coalition is asking for your help with a bill that threatens state lands: http://floridaconservationcoalition.org/pages/alerts

“The Messenger,” an important documentary on the conservation of songbirds, will be screened at The Hipp at 7:15 p.m. on Friday, February 12th. Make plans to see it. Here’s the web site, with a trailer: http://songbirdsos.com/ And here’s a five-minute segment of the film in which a researcher nets a Hooded Warbler that had been fitted out with a geolocator one year previously, removes the geolocator, and is able to see where the bird has spent the winter: http://songbirdsos.com/portfolio/bridget-stutchbury-retrieves-hooded-warbler/ It’s an amazing, amazing thing.

The Sandhill Cranes just got here – most arrived after January 1st and one southbound flock was seen as late as the 25th – but they’re already starting north again. On yesterday’s walk at Sweetwater Wetlands Park someone told me they’d seen northbound flocks this past weekend. Yesterday I saw a V-flock of 27 birds headed north over my NE Gainesville house at about lunchtime, and also yesterday, Steve Zoellner reported that he “saw and heard several flocks trying to group up and gain altitude (succeeding?) to head out.”

This morning Adam Kent heard his first singing Brown Thrasher of the spring. I heard my first Northern Mockingbird singing in Folkston, Georgia, two days ago; I haven’t heard one in Gainesville yet.

The three Pine Siskins that visited my feeders on Tuesday morning were one-day wonders. Almost one-hour wonders, because I didn’t see them again after late morning.

Mike Manetz found a Wilson’s Warbler in a blackberry tangle along the power line cut off Sparrow Alley this morning. That’s the fifth of the winter, I think, the others being at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens (Christmas Bird Count), Chapmans Pond (most recent report January 11th) and up to two at Cones Dike (most recent report January 31st).

This year I hope to finish a book on the birds of Alachua County considered from a historical perspective. Periodically I’ll use this birding report to ask questions about one species or another. For instance, where are the Rock Pigeon populations in Alachua County? I know there’s one at the Hague Dairy, I know there’s one at the UF Beef Teaching Unit (which may involve the same set of birds we see at the UF Vet School and around the VA Hospital), I know there’s one around the intersection of US-301 and State Road 24 in Waldo and another at I-75 and US-441 in Alachua. Where else? I’d be grateful for any information you can send me. Interestingly – to me, anyway – Rock Pigeon is a bird for which the county has no historical data at all. No one knows when it got here. Lists of the county’s breeding birds published in 1888, 1913, and 1936 did not mention it, and Christmas Bird Count data are useless because in 1950 Audubon Field Notes editor John W. Aldrich decreed that Rock Pigeons should not be counted on CBCs: “It is impossible to determine whether certain birds are wild or domestic, and since the distribution and abundance of this species is of so little interest to amateur and professional ornithologists, the best solution seems to be to ignore the Rock Dove completely in future counts.” Consequently they didn’t show up on the Gainesville CBC until this policy was discontinued in 1974. The earliest specimen in the museum is dated simply “1950”; the second-earliest are three dated simply “1952.” Pierce Brodkorb noted that he collected several “domestic” individuals – from the UF campus? from a farm? from a pet shop? – in 1954. So they were evidently in the county by the 50s and 60s. But where are they now, that’s what I want to know. If you know of a population somewhere in Alachua County, please send me an email. Thanks.

And remember to put “The Messenger” on your calendar!

The first Purple Martins of the spring have checked in. Glenn Israel saw the first one at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 24th, and two more showed up at the Prairie Creek Lodge martin house on the 28th. This morning Carmine Lanciani saw one over his NW Gainesville neighborhood. I guess that means winter’s over and it’ll be nothing but dogwoods, azaleas, and sunny, sunny sunshine from here on out, right?

Start watching your feeders for Pine Siskins. I saw three at my tube feeder this morning, eating black-oil sunflower seeds.

Chris Burney, Jessica Hightower, and Caroline Poli found a Lincoln’s Sparrow in a group of Song Sparrows near the boardwalk at La Chua on the 31st.

Don’t know if you saw my blog post on trapping snakes with drift fences, but it’s here: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/701/snake-trapping/

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

On the 30th Chip Deutsch wrote, “I sighted a male Cinnamon Teal today at Sweetwater Wetlands Park – knew it was nice sighting, but did not realize how rare it was until I read your last posting. Lovely bird with a striking coloration, even at a distance. It was located alone in the outer water body SW of cell 2, sighted from SE corner of cell 1.” Several birders went looking for it at Sweetwater this morning, but didn’t relocate it. Maybe it went back to La Chua. We’ll keep our eyes open for it during the next Wednesday Wetlands Walk, meeting at 8:30 a.m. on the 3rd.

Speaking of SWP, the folks from http://www.moonbeampublishing.com/ were out there on the 26th and got this fantastic photo of a Virginia Rail: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/24440772610/in/dateposted-public/

We’ve got lots of wintering warblers around: Pat Bazany and a friend drove up to Gainesville on the 30th to visit the Hague Dairy, where they found a feeding flock of warblers that included an American Redstart and a Nashville Warbler. This may be the same redstart that wintered there last year. That’s four wintering redstarts in Alachua County right now. We never had even one redstart spend the entire winter here until 1997-98, when an immature male passed the entire season in Mike Manetz’s back yard. We’ve had a few since then, but never this many in a single season. The Nashville is presumably the same bird that Keith Collingwood found there on December 4th and photographed: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/24363276629/in/dateposted-public/ That makes three Nashvilles wintering in Alachua County, which is also a record. And Adam Zions has had two Black-throated Green Warblers hanging around his SW Gainesville neighborhood since January 9th (here’s a photo of one). Add to these the Black-throated Blue Warbler seen by Harry Jones at SWP on the 26th and the Worm-eating Warbler that was on the UF campus from December 12-18, not to mention all the Northern Parulas. That’s a lot of migrant warblers north of their usual winter territory.

I’ve included a map of the dairy in this email (see below). As I understand it, Pat saw the Nashville at point G, and for those of you interested in the sparrows mentioned in the previous birding report (Le Conte’s, Henslow’s, and Grasshopper), they’re in the field at J. The map, which is the characteristically splendid work of Jonathan Vaughan, a high school friend from Jacksonville, is from A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida, which is expected to win the Oscar in the category of It’s Not A Movie, But We Don’t Care, Because Isn’t It Just The Best Thing Ever?

Phil Laipis saw a Nashville Warbler at the east end of Chapmans Pond on the 31st, “in the ditch west of the police monument.” He adds, “As an aside, as I was searching the LARGE Live Oak in the middle of the clearing for the Nashville, I twice saw a small (brownish?) bird ‘creeping’ around the trunk, but keeping it between me and it. Nothing responded to Brown Creeper call/song, but I’m thinking Brown Creeper. There was a Black-and-white in the Live Oak, but this really did look brown, in my two 10-msec looks.” The creeper at Tuscawilla Prairie was last reported on the 18th by Matt O’Sullivan.

The Common Loon that Peter Polshek first noticed in the duck pond on the east side of North Florida Regional on the 10th is still there as of the 28th. I contacted Florida Wildlife Care to see if it was stuck and should be rescued – they need a large body of water to take off – but they decided either that it was doing fine or they had no way of capturing it.

I mentioned in my January 17th birding report that I hadn’t heard a Northern Cardinal singing yet. Barbara Shea heard one on the 24th and Ron Robinson heard another on the 25th and now I’m hearing them just about every day.

Speaking of the delayed season, where are the robins? We usually see tons of them by late January, but I’ve only seen a few here and there. I asked around, and Adam Kent and Sam Ewing are noticing this too. It’s not everywhere, though. Mike Manetz, who lives in NW Gainesville, wrote, “Had hordes of robins and common grackles in the yard on the 26th and 27th. They’ll probably make it over to your place a a day or two.” I’m seeing normal numbers of Cedar Waxwings, just not robins.

Donny Griffin forwarded this video of two nestling hummingbirds being fed by wildlife rehabbers: https://www.facebook.com/RaptorEducationGroupInc/videos/10200251956683718/

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

Thanks to all who turned out on a cold and windy Saturday afternoon to march in favor of Paynes Prairie. About 300 people, including quite a few birders, gathered at First Magnitude Brewing, walked up Main Street, and spread out along the four corners of University and Main. Thanks, also, to those of you who called the members of the Subcommittee on Appropriations and urged them not to cut 51 jobs from the Park Service. This is all a lot of trouble and annoyance, I understand, but it seems to be the most effective way to keep our parks going until some perspective is restored to our state government (if it ever is). Our birding is largely dependent on the health of our State Park system, so these marches, letters, emails, petitions, and phone calls are crucially important.

Some nice birds have been seen in the past few days. A party of seven led by Chris Burney found a Henslow’s Sparrow and two Le Conte’s Sparrows in the field east of the Hague Dairy on the 27th. If you take the back way to the dairy, heading toward Alachua on US-441 and turning right onto County Road 25A right after the Deerhaven pond but before the Sunoco station, and then after a little less than a mile turning right onto NW 59th Drive, you’ll see the dairy on your left and a big open field on your right. The sparrows were in that field. It’s still dairy property, so please remember to sign in at the dairy office before you walk onto the field. The group also saw two Painted Buntings, a male and a female. All the birds seem to have been near the field’s edge, as Chris commented that they “flushed from field and perched in viney scrub.”

Even more exciting than the sparrows, Lloyd Davis photographed a drake Cinnamon Teal at La Chua on the 24th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/24302381199/in/dateposted-public/ This is a species that has been recorded only three times previously in Alachua County: Dale Rice and Edward Mockford saw a drake at Lake Alice on March 8, 1953 (Lake Alice was really an excellent birding spot in the 50s; UF students should look up David O. Karraker’s Master’s thesis “The birds of Lake Alice” from 1953 in the Marston Science Library), one or two immatures were seen by many birders at the Dollar General retention pond from September 10th to the 18th or 20th, 2005 (photo), and one was seen by Adam Zions at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on November 24, 2013.

On the 26th Harrison Jones wrote, “I got what I believe to be a female Black-throated Blue in a large mixed-species flock in the parking lot at Sweetwater. The bird was foraging fairly high with the flock in the live oaks near where the pay station is located as you pull into the parking lot. Very nondescript with a marked dark cheek patch and the white wing patch.” As far as I can tell, this is only the ninth winter-season sighting for Black-throated Blue in Alachua County. If December sightings are assumed to involve lingering fall migrants, then it’s only the fourth winter record.

On the 24th Phil Laipis found some Rusty Blackbirds: “After the Dairy, I stopped at Walmart, and then Magnolia Parke to check for Rusty Blackbirds. I saw two in the SW corner of the swamp; probably more from the sounds. I had great looks at one, a female, but the camera was in the car, sigh. Saw them about 2:20, as I was giving up. Also, Red-headed Woodpecker and and two Hooded Mergansers in the E pond. Sedge Wrens and American Bittern at the Dairy, but no unexpected sparrows, except Vesper.”

My darling daughter made me this Christmas present, using a cutout of a generic shorebird with overlapping photos of Paynes Prairie behind it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/24645607436/in/dateposted-public/ The text is from the final stanza of “Inversnaid” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, one of my favorite poets. The complete stanza could serve as a motto for the movement to protect Paynes Prairie and all State Parks: “What would the world be, once bereft / Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, / O let them be left, wildness and wet; / Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.”

I got a chuckle out of this Jonathan Mays photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jmays/23699271853/

The ultralite-led Whooping Crane migrations have been terminated. This year’s will be the last: http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2016/01/23/end-of-ultralight-guided-migration/ You can watch Joe Duff, co-founder and CEO of Operation Migration, discuss this on OM’s “Live Cam” tonight at 7:30: http://operationmigration.org/InTheField/2016/01/28/live-stream-presentation/

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

Hummingbird bander Fred Bassett is coming through town on January 23rd. If you’ve got a hummingbird that’s regularly visiting a FEEDER, and you’d like to have Fred band it – he can also identify it, if it’s a puzzling female or immature bird – send me your name and contact information and I’ll pass them along to Fred. Remember, it has to be visiting a feeder, not flowering plants.

It’s what they call “a slow news day” in the birding-report biz. In fact it’s been a pretty slow winter in general, with low numbers of ducks, cranes, and sparrows, the very species that brighten up the season for us. I led field trips to Sweetwater Wetlands Park on Wednesday and Saturday. The stars of the show out there, the Purple Swamphens, haven’t been seen since December 23rd. Shortly after that date, an airboat spent some time in Cell 1 treating the area for exotic plants, and by the looks of things it scared the swamphens off the property. They’ll probably turn up on Paynes Prairie – by the dozens – before too many years have passed, but meanwhile there’s no place in Alachua County to which I can direct you if you want to see a Purple Swamphen. The best birds from Saturday’s SWP walk with the Clearwater Audubon Society were only slightly out of the ordinary: a Purple Gallinule in Cell 3, a King Rail seen in Cell 1, two Least Bitterns (heard only) in Cell 1, the same Great White Heron that’s been hanging around the north outflow since October 12th, a Ruddy Duck in Cell 1, and a couple of Ospreys. Two of our most interesting sightings involved very common species: a drake Blue-winged Teal with odd markings on its head (photo) and an unusually colorful male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (photo), both photographed by Clearwater Audubon’s Dale Goebel.

When I checked last week, La Chua Trail was still closed beyond the boardwalk due to flooding. Hopefully the water level will fall and the trail will dry out, but on the other hand this may be an unintended but disastrous consequence of the sheetflow restoration and the Prairie’s best trail may be closed for good.

There haven’t been any new discoveries lately, mainly things that have already been seen:

Vaux’s Swifts were back in their chimneys at Dauer Hall on the evening of the 9th, though the exact number was uncertain. Cuneyt Yilmaz reported 15 and Karl Miller 16. Karl noted that the swifts, “appeared at 5:16 and went in the chimney by 5:40.” They’ve been here for nearly two months now.

Karl Miller and Adam Kent both reported Nashville Warblers around the powerlines west of Chapmans Pond on the 10th. Trina Anderson saw two there on the 7th, “brighter one photographed north of small overgrown ponds near power line, duller one seen near pond where willow is.” On the 1st Adam Zions, birding at the west end of Chapmans, saw both Nashvilles, a Wilson’s Warbler (near the pond in the woods just east of the power lines), an Indigo Bunting, and a Painted Bunting. I especially liked his eBird description of the Painted: “Plumage colored as if a Skittles package was opened and poured on a passerine. Absolute handsome bird. Purple/blue head with red eyering; neon green mantle; bright pink-red throat and undersides heading up onto rump. Observed just west of powerline along underbrush by raised berm area.”

A handsome drake Redhead – Pat Burns refers to him as a “stud muffin” – has been at the Hague Dairy since at least November 29th; it was most recently reported by Trina Anderson on January 10th. Lloyd Davis posted a nice photo in his eBird checklist from the 4th: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26671536

The Lesser Black-backed Gull has only been reported a few times. It was found on the Christmas Count on the 20th and seen by several of us from the Windsor boat ramp on the following morning. Since then I’ve heard of only two sightings, both from Palm Point: Dotty Robbins eBirded it on the 29th and Bob Carroll saw it on the 2nd. Mike Manetz and I spent half an hour scanning from Palm Point on a windy January 5th, but we saw only Ring-billed Gulls in addition to the flock of 40 Bonaparte’s Gulls fluttering right off the Point.

Peter Polshek emailed on the afternoon of the 10th to report a Common Loon in the pond beside North Florida Regional Medical Center.

The fall migration of Sandhill Cranes is still underway, apparently. Donny Griffin reported two southbound flocks, one of 50 and one of 75, going over the Osceola National Forest in the early afternoon of the 10th.

An interesting taxonomic note: to commemorate the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” the AOU has changed the name of the Carolina Wren to the Kylo Wren. (I’m still waiting for someone to laugh at that. See also https://twitter.com/kylor3n?lang=en )

This Tuesday, January 12th, at 6:30 p.m., Alachua County birding’s power couple Gina and Adam Kent will present a program on “The Imperiled Birds of Central Florida.” Gina is a field biologist with Avian Research and Conservation who’s done hands-on work with a number of imperiled species (Swallow-tailed Kite, Short-tailed Hawk, White-crowned Pigeon, Reddish Egret, etc.), while Adam is an ex-president of the Florida Ornithological Society. The presentation will take place at the Prairie Creek Lodge at 7204 SE County Road 234, a very nice place you should visit (so why not this Tuesday at 6:30?): http://alachuaconservationtrust.org/index.php?/alachua_v2/Prairie_Creek_Lodge “Come join us to learn about some of these fascinating rare and imperiled species that can be found within a few hours’ drive of Gainesville. Why are there so many rare birds in Florida?What is the difference between a rare and an imperiled species? In addition to a half dozen federally Threatened and Endangered species, we’ll also talk about birds listed as imperiled by other agencies and organizations. We’ll discuss factors that contribute to the scarcity of these birds, what’s being done to protect them now, and top it off with some conservations success stories. Come learn what you can do to help!”

Hey, did you know that the Alachua Audubon Society field trip schedule was online? There’s, like, so much! https://alachuaaudubon.org/classes-field-trips/

Remember to send me your contact information if you’ve got a hummingbird you’d like Fred Bassett to band.

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

Remember that Alachua Audubon leads a Sweetwater Wetlands Park walk every Wednesday morning. We’ll meet at the shelter just off the parking lot at 8:30 a.m. on January 6th for the first Wednesday Wetlands Walk of 2016.

Also, mark your calendars for Adam and Gina Kent’s talk on “Imperiled Birds of Central Florida” next Tuesday, January 12th. More details here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/programs/

The Brown Creeper found at the Tuscawilla Prairie on the Christmas Count is still there, though it’s mostly hanging around the parking lot at the Native American Heritage Preserve north of the road. Dalcio Dacol posted an excellent photo in his eBird checklist from the 4th: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26674039

The Vaux’s Swifts are still here, though they’re not perfectly reliable. Visiting Clay County birder Steve Raduns reported 16 on the 2nd, but Mike Manetz didn’t see any between 4:30 and dark on the 3rd. On the 4th, however, they were back, and visiting Tennessee birder Thomas McNeil posted the following note on his eBird checklist: “Appeared overhead at 5:47 pm. They circled for a few minutes and dropped into the right chimney. I attempted cellphone videos. The phone playback of the two separate videos appears to show 17 birds going into the chimney (although I could have missed a bird coming back out). My wife counted 16 (don’t ever argue with your wife).”

On the 2nd, writes Bob Carroll, “I spent a delightful 90 minutes in a slight, on-again off-again drizzle at Palm Point from about 4:00 to about 5:30. The delightful part had a lot to do with about 40 Bonaparte’s Gulls that spent the entire time just off the Point feeding from right to left and then circling back. They were fun to watch. Periodically another group of larger gulls circled in to check out the activity. Most were Ring-billed Gulls, but there were also at least one Laughing Gull and one Herring Gull among them. Then just about 5:15 another gull flew over that I believe was the Lesser Black-backed Gull. Fortunately, it circled for a couple of minutes before heading north. Everything I saw matched the photos you’ve posted, especially the pale ring on the nape, the extensive black on the upper wings, black bill, wide black band at the end of the tail and what seemed to be a smudgy rump. Because of the rain, I didn’t have my camera out, so I got no photos. Still, I’ve never had a five-gull day in Alachua County, so it was a great way to start the year.”

Harry Jones saw two American Redstarts at Bolen Bluff on the 4th, as well as a Wilson’s Warbler. The Wilson’s is the fifth of the winter; Adam Zions had two at Cones Dike on the 2nd, there’s been one at Chapmans Pond since the 14th, and Scott Robinson saw one at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens on the CBC. And at least one Nashville Warbler is still hanging around the west side of Chapmans Pond, seen most recently on the 4th by Lloyd Davis. Mike Manetz got a couple of photos on the 2nd and embedded them in his eBird checklist: http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S26609816

Summer Tanagers are wintering around Gainesville in unprecedented numbers. Just for the sake of comparison, between 1969 and 2005 a grand total of 13 or 14 Summer Tanagers were reported wintering in Gainesville. That’s 13 or 14 over the course of 46 winters – whereas 11 or 12 were reported in the past month!

Sandhill Crane numbers were pretty low on the Christmas Bird Count, but maybe that’s because most of the birds were dawdling up north. On the afternoon of the 1st Ron Robinson saw several groups flying south over his place at the western edge of Gainesville, and on the 2nd Donny Griffin saw cranes going over the Osceola National Forest. If these birds are just now arriving, it’s by far the latest fall migration I’ve ever heard about.

By contrast, it’s my impression that Cedar Waxwings are early this winter. Normally they start building up in January and peak from February through April. But they’re already being seen in large numbers all across town. Sam Ewing saw a flock of 1,000 near Shands Hospital on the 3rd.

We’ve got some unfinished 2015 business to attend to. First, fourteen birders tallied 200 or more species in Alachua County in 2015:

Mike Manetz 240 (ties the fourth-highest total ever; Mike also owns first place, with 255 in 2012, and he’s twice gotten 241, once in 2000 and again in 2013)
John Hintermister 232 (sixth-highest total ever)
Rex Rowan 225
Adam Zions 224
Lloyd Davis 223
Debbie Segal 217
Matt O’Sullivan 213
Howard Adams 210
Trina Anderson 209 (tie)
Sam Ewing 209
Andy Kratter 204
Jennifer Donsky 203
Jonathan Mays 202
Barbara Shea 201

Congratulations, all! And we’re off to a good start in 2016, with Lloyd Davis and Adam Zions vying for first place with 83 species each as of the 3rd.

Among Alachua County birders, here are the ten largest Florida state year lists for 2015:

Lloyd Davis 304 (tie)
John Hintermister 304
Adam Zions 303
Mike Manetz 287
Jonathan Mays 277 (three-way tie)
Matt O’Sullivan 277
Debbie Segal 277
Phil Laipis 272 (tie)
Charlene Leonard 272
Adam Kent 267

Every year Adam Zions comes up with his list of Top Ten Birds of the Year. Here’s this year’s edition. Take it away, Adam:

Another year has passed and the earth has nearly made another complete revolution around our brightest source of light. You know what it means. Time to figure out the Top 10 Most Intriguing Birds observed in Alachua County for 2015. And here I thought recent years proved difficult to determine this list. 2015 may yet be the most difficult year for me since I’ve moved up here.

Here are my candidates in taxonomic order (please feel free to add any I may have overlooked):
Fulvous Whistling-Duck
Black Scoter
Purple (Gray-headed) Swamphen (for better or worse)
Red-necked Phalarope
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Groove-billed Ani
Vaux’s Swift
Alder Flycatcher
Shiny Cowbird
Bullock’s Oriole

Others which didn’t make the above list (and it speaks to how many great birds passed through the county this year), but which are nonetheless excellent observations in themselves for the county:
Greater White-fronted Goose
Red-breasted Merganser
Magnificent Frigatebird
White-faced Ibis
Whooping Crane
American Avocet
Least Tern
Vermilion Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
The Cave and Cliff Swallow combo (right next to each other) which Mike Manetz found
Winter Wren
Canada Warbler
Lark Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Western Tanager
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Bronzed Cowbird
Purple Finch

Thanks, Adam. Please submit your votes for Ten Best Birds of 2015 and I’ll post the winners in a future email.

See you at Sweetwater on Wednesday morning and at Prairie Creek Lodge for Adam and Gina’s talk on the 12th.

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

On December 20th the 58th Gainesville Christmas Bird Count (or the 61st if you count CBCs performed by couples in 1924, 1927, and 1949) managed to tie the record of 162 species set in 2012. We almost beat it, because there was a possible Chestnut-sided Warbler at Lake Alice, but this was never confirmed, so 162 it is. At the end of the email I’ve posted the complete list of birds seen.

The most exciting bird seen on the count was a first-county-record Lesser Black-backed Gull found by the boat team (Andy Kratter, Peter Polshek, John Mangold, and Terry Cake) at Newnans Lake. John got a series of superb photos, two of which are linked below:

The Lesser Black-backed was seen from Palm Point on the 29th by Dotty Robbins, so it may be worthwhile to go out there if you haven’t seen it yet.

David and Kim Stringer live at Savannah Pointe, south of Williston Road just west of I-75. They’ve recently had hundreds of Sandhill Cranes in the fields behind their home. They write, “Folks are welcome to stop by to see or photograph. Call ahead: 352-332-6580.” Janet Jordan has been seeing a Whooping Crane at the Kanapaha Prairie, but unfortunately the Prairie is private property. However if the Whooping Crane sticks around till January 23rd, participants in Alachua Audubon’s Kanapaha Prairie field trip may get to see it.

Here’s something from David Sibley on estimating bird numbers. I should have linked to this before the Christmas Count! http://www.sibleyguides.com/2015/12/a-new-quiz-series/

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 551
Snow Goose 1 (near Kanapaha Prairie) https://www.flickr.com/photos/thermalin/23687706960/in/dateposted/
Muscovy Duck 266
Wood Duck 191
Gadwall 15
American Wigeon 1
Mallard 12
Mottled Duck 87
Blue-winged Teal 690
Northern Shoveler 17
Northern Pintail 3
Green-winged Teal 16
Redhead 1
Ring-necked Duck 354
Lesser Scaup 60
Bufflehead 7
Hooded Merganser 98
Ruddy Duck 16
Northern Bobwhite 11
Wild Turkey 30
Pied-billed Grebe 142
Horned Grebe 31
Wood Stork 68
Double-crested Cormorant 521
Anhinga 178
American White Pelican 1
American Bittern 7
Least Bittern 4 (all at Sweetwater Wetlands Park)
Great Blue Heron (including 1 Great White Heron at Sweetwater Wetlands Park) 147
Great Egret 166
Snowy Egret 216
Little Blue Heron 374
Tricolored Heron 87
Cattle Egret 93
Green Heron 17
Black-crowned Night-Heron 103
White Ibis 2,865
Glossy Ibis 154
Black Vulture 426
Turkey Vulture 983
Osprey 6
Northern Harrier 44
Sharp-shinned Hawk 12
Cooper’s Hawk 7
Accipiter, sp. 2
Bald Eagle 75
Red-shouldered Hawk 190
Red-tailed Hawk 48
King Rail 10
Virginia Rail 11
Sora 60
Purple Swamphen 2
Purple Gallinule 2
Common Gallinule 485
American Coot 2,892
Limpkin 66
Sandhill Crane 963
Whooping Crane 1 (flying over downtown Gainesville)
Killdeer 333
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Greater Yellowlegs 15
Lesser Yellowlegs 8
Least Sandpiper 34
Wilson’s Snipe 147
American Woodcock 10
Bonaparte’s Gull 2
Laughing Gull 1 (Newnans Lake)
Ring-billed Gull 286
Herring Gull 2 (Newnans Lake)
Lesser Black-backed Gull 1 (Newnans Lake)
Forster’s Tern 3
Rock Pigeon 77
Eurasian Collared-Dove 21
White-winged Dove 1 (near Kanapaha Prairie)
Mourning Dove 370
Barn Owl 3
Eastern Screech-Owl 12
Great Horned Owl 35
Barred Owl 50
Eastern Whip-poor-will 1
Vaux’s Swift 14 (UF campus, present since mid-November)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 1 (NW Gainesville)
Belted Kingfisher 36
Red-headed Woodpecker 15
Red-bellied Woodpecker 304
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 111
Downy Woodpecker 118
Northern Flicker 64
Pileated Woodpecker 124
American Kestrel 44
Merlin 2
Least Flycatcher 2 (Cones Dike Trail)
Eastern Phoebe 453
Ash-throated Flycatcher 2 (Persimmon Point at Paynes Prairie)
Loggerhead Shrike 26
White-eyed Vireo 101
Blue-headed Vireo 103
Blue Jay 260
American Crow 609
Fish Crow 107
crow, sp. 140
Tree Swallow 170
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1 (Cones Dike Trail)
Carolina Chickadee 232
Tufted Titmouse 359
Brown-headed Nuthatch 6
Brown Creeper 1 (Tuscawilla Prairie)
House Wren 177
Sedge Wren 60
Marsh Wren 69
Carolina Wren 395
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 493
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 627
Eastern Bluebird 245
Hermit Thrush 54
American Robin 1,143
Gray Catbird 145
Northern Mockingbird 168
Brown Thrasher 15
European Starling 24
American Pipit 2
Cedar Waxwing 410
Ovenbird 6
Northern Waterthrush 7 (Cones Dike Trail)
Black-and-white Warbler 106
Orange-crowned Warbler 104
Nashville Warbler 1 (Chapmans Pond)
Common Yellowthroat 191
American Redstart 1 (Kanapaha Gardens)
Northern Parula 7
Palm Warbler 758
Pine Warbler 221
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2,111
Yellow-throated Warbler 50
Prairie Warbler 7
Black-throated Green Warbler 1 (west side of Paynes Prairie)
Wilson’s Warbler 2
Eastern Towhee 97
Chipping Sparrow 593
Field Sparrow 9
Vesper Sparrow 14
Savannah Sparrow 60
Grasshopper Sparrow 1
Henslow’s Sparrow 4
Fox Sparrow 2 (Prairie Creek Preserve)
Song Sparrow 32
Lincoln’s Sparrow 3
Swamp Sparrow 233
White-throated Sparrow 8
Summer Tanager 1 (NW Gainesville)
Western Tanager 1 (NW Gainesville)
Northern Cardinal 627
Indigo Bunting 1 (Chapmans Pond)
Painted Bunting 4
Red-winged Blackbird 5,857
Eastern Meadowlark 169
Rusty Blackbird 3
Common Grackle 86
Boat-tailed Grackle 948
Brown-headed Cowbird 840
Baltimore Oriole 49
House Finch 94
American Goldfinch 451
House Sparrow 22

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

During yesterday’s Christmas Bird Count the Newnans Lake boat team (Andy Kratter and John Mangold with Terry Cake in Terry’s boat) discovered a first-winter Lesser Black-backed Gull, a bird never before seen in Alachua County. John got photos from the boat, but I don’t think they’re available yet. Anyway, John Hintermister, Phil Laipis, Mike Manetz, Greg McDermott, and I assembled at 7:30 this morning at the Windsor boat ramp (Owens-Illinois Park) in hope of seeing it. Perhaps “hope” is not the word, since John was the only one of us who was optimistic about our ability to identify a distant immature gull through spotting scopes. In fact, Mike was so skeptical about our chances that he almost stayed home. But we found it, and (to everyone’s surprise but John’s) it was actually identifiable at long distance, so it might be worthwhile to give it a try yourself.

I expected a big warm brown gull, like a first-year Herring Gull. But the brown tones on this bird are a darker, “colder” brown, almost sooty. The head and neck look white from a distance, the bill all black. There’s a dusky area, a “mask,” around the eye. In flight the wings look quite dark both above and below. The rump is white. Here are a couple of photos taken from the internet that will give you an idea of what you’re looking for:

Resting, as when floating on the water: http://www.nemesisbird.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/IMG_3303.jpg

In flight: http://www.nemesisbird.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/lbbg2.jpg

After we’d seen the bird, I had to head home – my son had bought tickets for a 10:45 showing of the new Star Wars movie – but the others went on to the Tuscawilla Prairie, where a Brown Creeper was found yesterday by the Christmas Bird Count team in the wooded area north of the marsh. It was found today as well, by John, Phil, Mike, and Greg. Mike wrote that it was “first heard making its high-pitched single-note call.”

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

On November 20th I had an email from Karen Burkhardt, telling me that she’d gotten her life Purple Swamphen at Sweetwater Wetlands Park that day. As an afterthought she added, “there are actually two Swamphens at Sweetwater.” I was surprised to hear that, and, okay, maybe a little skeptical, so I queried her further. Had they been seen together? “Yes, by multiple observers,” she replied. “The were having a ‘domestic dispute’ so there was no question about it.” I inquired whether anyone had obtained a photo, and reminded her that Purple Gallinules can look something like Purple Swamphens. She bristled at that: “The ‘domestic dispute’ was observed by others. The other bird was not, not a Purple Gallinule. That’s all I have to say about it.”

She was right. Today I heard from Frank Goodwin and David and Kim Stringer that they’d seen two swamphens at Sweetwater, and Frank sent a photo to prove it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/23057907593/in/dateposted-public/

Two. You know what that means. The name of the park will soon be Swamphen Wetlands Park.

On the 10th an Alachua County birder looked out the window and saw this at his feeder: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/23576435102/in/dateposted-public/ It was still there today. In case you don’t know what that is, it’s a female Purple Finch, a bird of the northern coniferous forests that only comes this far south occasionally. But the presence of one here suggests that we should all start watching our feeders a little more closely.

Purple Swamphen, Purple Finch. You can see I’m working a theme today. How about this, then: a Purple Swamphen standing next to a Purple Gallinule, courtesy of Chris Janus: https://www.flickr.com/photos/chris_f8/22943435884/in/dateposted/

Here’s a bird photo quiz to get you in the right frame of mind for the Christmas Bird Count. You can’t play if you subscribe to this particular photographer’s Flickr page and have seen it before. I’ll tell you only that it was taken in Gainesville on December 6th and that, for once today, the word “purple” is not part of its name. What bird is it, and why do you think so? https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/23274393999/in/dateposted-public/

Every year my sisters ask what I want for Christmas, and every year I don’t know what to tell them. You’ve got the same problem, right? You already have the Aston Martin golf cart, the 14-foot hi-def TV, and the $3,000 hamster-lined socks; and last year your best friend arranged for Taylor Swift and Yo Yo Ma to perform the Beatles’ songbook in your living room while Mary Elizabeth Winstead sat on your knee and reprised her Ramona Flowers character from “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.” After setting the bar that high, what on earth can they get you this year? They can get you A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida, the greatest bird book ever written! Roger Tory Peterson was just a lonely sailor until he stumbled across a copy of A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida, and ten years later he published A Field Guide to the Birds. David Sibley was eking out a living repairing rubber bands in Mississippi when someone sent him a copy of A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida, and five years after that he published The Sibley Guide to Birds. No doubt you’ve heard what happened to sanitation worker Bill Gates, dental hygienist Lebron James, and human resources specialists Taylor Swift and Yo Yo Ma when they happened across copies of this astonishingly helpful and inspirational book! 128 pages, 42 maps, descriptions of 52 birding spots, accounts of each of the county’s 340 extant bird species as of May 2006. It will transform your life! Or at least help you to see more birds, and entertain you along the way. You can find it at Wild Birds Unlimited, which is right next door to The Flying Biscuit in the shopping center at NW 43rd Street and NW 16th Boulevard. Your problem is solved; you can get on with your life. Whew! You’re welcome!