Category: Birding Reports

After many sightings of Snail Kites at Sweetwater Wetlands Park and Paynes Prairie, a nest was finally discovered by State biologists. See photos and read more about it here.

This is the last full weekend of The June Challenge. Next weekend you’ve got only Saturday, because Sunday is July 1st and the June Challenge will be over!

Barbara Woodmansee advises that there have been “several” Canada Geese in a temporary pond on County Road 346A off Williston Road. CR-346A is 5.75 miles south of I-75, and the pond is about half a mile from Williston Road on the left. The origin of these geese is unknown, but they haven’t been there long, so we’ll assume they’re free-flying and countable for The June Challenge.

Barbara Shea photographed two King Rails at the Watermelon Pond boat ramp on Wednesday morning, and then, driving back north on SW 250th Street (the access road to Watermelon Pond), she spotted two Northern Bobwhites crossing over. Why did the gallinaceous bird cross the street? To get on Barbara Shea’s June Challenge list!

(I’ve now posted two King Rail photos, and both have been as blurry as pictures of Bigfoot. As far as my June Challenge list is concerned, both are equally mythical.)

(Plus, what’s with the Barbaras? Barbara Woodmansee, Barbara Shea, both of them seeing good birds. It’s something cosmic, I’m certain of it. If your name is Barbara, get out there now and take advantage of it!)

On the 21st Jennifer “Barbara” Donsky wrote, “The Broad-winged Hawk came up and down quickly at around 11 a.m. a little above pine tree to the NW, north side of San Felasco Hammock near interstate as seen from parking lot. It was hanging with 3 Swallow-tailed Kites and 2 Mississippi Kites which were going back and forth over Millhopper Road.”

Speaking of kites, Eric Anderson wrote on Friday afternoon, “In the freshly hayed field on the west side of County Road 241 where Millhopper Road dead-ends was an enormous soaring congregation of around 20+ Mississippi Kites and a few Swallow-tailed Kites. The Mississippi Kites were actually landing and flying off with freshly mowed clumps of hay! Perhaps there was some sort of prey item in the hay. This was happening today June 22, 2018 at 1:30pm. The field was being mowed at the time.”

John Martin photographed a drake Blue-winged Teal off the boardwalk at La Chua on the 17th, a different individual from the one at Sweetwater. The Sweetwater bird apparently has a broken wing; Danny Rohan tried to capture it and take it to a wildlife rehab agency, but it refused to cooperate.

Chuck Littlewood shared this bird cartoon with me: https://www.gocomics.com/rubes/2018/06/21

A reminder from Becky Enneis: “Please send only photos taken in June 2018 of birds that were in Alachua County. I’d like to start working on the slide show now, so don’t wait until the end of the month to send them. And I like photos of June Challenge birders in action, too! Send those if you have them.” Becky is at raenneis@yahoo.com

Remember to submit your Alachua County results to me by midnight on June 30th (but if you’re outside of Alachua County, submit your results to Susan O’Connor at niltava29@gmail.com).

There will be a June Challenge party at Becky Enneis’s place in Alachua on Sunday, July 8th, during which the results will be announced and the awards will be presented.

Now that the official business is out of the way, let’s get to the birds. The month of June is 2/3 over; you’ve got ten days to beef up your list and win this contest! I’m rooting for you, but don’t tell the others I said so.

Until yesterday the only King Rails reported this month had come from Sweetwater Wetland Park, one by Monica LeClerc on the 6th and one by Jonathan Mays on the 15th. But on the 19th Chris Cattau wrote, “King Rails have been very hard to come by this year (at least for me), but I finally got my eyes on one around 7:30 yesterday evening at Levy Lake Loop. It crossed the levee about 50 yards before the first covered bench along the north side of the prairie (so taking a right out of the parking lot it was a little over a mile down the trail). Also heard another call nearby.” Chris’s photo above. By the way, the “cough call” of the Least Bittern can easily be mistaken for a King Rail. In fact, I have a bad feeling that a pretty large percentage of the King Rails I’ve reported to eBird over the years were actually Least Bitterns (call begins at 0:04): https://www.xeno-canto.org/95727

On the morning of the 14th, Dalcio Dacol saw a dark-morph Short-tailed Hawk “fly over SE 15th Street just a bit south of Boulware Springs Park. It seemed to be coming from the Prairie and moving in the general direction of Newnans Lake.” That’s the only Short-tailed reported in the county this month, though Andy Kratter saw a white-morph in the same general area around mid-morning on May 28th. Could they be nesting at Sweetwater Preserve or an adjacent part of Paynes Prairie? Anyway, sounds like a good area to stake out.

Chris Cattau – who’s certainly doing better than I am this month! – saw the drake Blue-winged Teal at Sweetwater Wetlands Park at 8 on Sunday evening. He wrote, “He’s here now but I didn’t see it when I walked by 2 hours ago.”

I asked Geoff Parks if he’d seen or heard the American Robin in his neighborhood recently. He said he’d been too busy to keep track, but he added, “My experience is that they sing really early in the morning—in May I heard him singing before any other diurnal birds were vocal. Really late in the evening as well. At more ‘normal’ times they’re not as obvious.” At 7:20 on the evening of the 19th he wrote, “Two males countersinging right now, one at NE 7th Terrace south of NE 23rd Avenue, one a block or so east.”

If you have an interest in ducks, geese, and swans, you might be interested in this new guide: https://www.hancockhouse.com/products/north-american-ducks-geese-swans/

Here’s an instance of kleptoparasitism that would do a Pomarine Jaeger proud: https://www.facebook.com/stbuTV/videos/2087696031510393/

Send any bird photos (or birder photos) you took during this year’s June Challenge to Becky Enneis at raenneis@yahoo.com so that she can include them in the slide show that will play during the June Challenge party.

Broad-winged Hawks have been more common this June than in years past. As mentioned in a previous email, one flew over the San Felasco Hammock parking lot on Millhopper Road as several of us gathered for a walk on the 9th. Erin Kalinowski went back on the 10th between 9:40 and 10:40 and saw it again. And on the 15th Deena Mickelson photographed one over the Mill Creek Preserve parking lot north of Alachua.

On the 8th Howard Adams and Danny Rohan found a drake Blue-winged Teal at Sweetwater Wetlands Park, in the overflow channel between Cells 1 and 2. I’ve seen no reports in eBird since, but Linda Hensley heard that it was seen again on Wednesday morning.

I found the Gray Catbird at Tumblin’ Creek Park at 7:25 on Tuesday morning. It was right where John Martin said it would be, singing in the “forested edge adjacent to where the retention pond has an obvious, wide concrete overflow pad crossing the asphalt pedestrian path along the SW side of pond.” Erin Kalinowski noted *two* catbirds there on Monday, as did Tina Greenberg on Thursday. This is the fourth straight year they’ve been singing in the park during June, but as far as I know nesting hasn’t been confirmed.

It’s interesting what they’ve done with SW 6th Street, by the way. In the past, on-road parking was not allowed, but now between Depot Road and SW 5th Avenue there’s parking on both sides of the road, both angle (“Back-In Only”) and parallel.

Last Sunday’s owl prowl at La Chua was good, really good, or excellent, depending on how late you stayed. Becky Minnick spotted a Great Horned Owl pretty early, partially hidden behind a clump of leaves in an oak, and after a few minutes it flew out to the top of a small tree and perched right out in the open for us. As dusk closed in, we headed back toward the parking lot, stopping at a point where we could see both the old barn and the former police-horse pasture. There we played the call of a Barn Owl, in hopes of luring one into view. Sometimes it takes them a little while to respond, so while we waited I asked Bob Carroll to play an Eastern Screech-Owl call as well. He did, and two screech-owls responded from the fencerow behind us, trilling simultaneously, and then one flew in. About that time, the bugs descended on us, and people started leaving. Out of the original 21, only five were still present when Gary Appelson located the screech-owl perched in a wild plum tree. We all got a nice look at it, and then headed for the parking lot … where we found three Barred Owls caterwauling in the trees overhead! We saw those well, too. We never did see or hear a Barn Owl, but we were all fairly satisfied with three owl species in one evening.

I took a boat ride all the way around Newnans Lake with Bob Knight and Debbie Segal on the evening of the 5th. We were hoping for Bald Eagles and Laughing Gulls, and maybe something a little unusual, like a coastal stray or a winter bird stranded here for the summer. We saw none of the above. But eagles are out there. Howard Adams and Brad Hall saw two from Windsor on the 4th, and Lloyd Davis photographed one along Lakeshore Drive on the 6th. They show up in other spots as well. Debbie Segal and Jennifer Donsky saw one in Evinston on the 7th,

As for Laughing Gulls, Howard and Brad saw 12 to 14 from the Windsor boat ramp on the 4th, and Bob Carroll and I saw one from Palm Point last night. I think they come and go from day to day, so keep trying.

The Brown Pelican at La Chua was seen daily from the 4th through the 9th, but hasn’t been reported since.

Still no Short-tailed Hawks. What a change from 2015, when there were five sightings, involving no fewer than three individual birds, in the first three weeks of the Challenge.

Speaking of 2015, if you still need Chuck-will’s-widow for the Challenge, here’s some advice from a June 20, 2015 birding report: “Chuck-will’s-widow isn’t always easy to find, but Peter Polshek was canny enough to consult A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida (p. 104-05), and on the 11th he wrote, ‘I saw 4 Chucks along the first mile of Fish Camp Road off County Road 325 last evening about 8:45-9:15.’ Fish Camp Road is one and a half miles south of the Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve parking corral.”

Bryant Roberts, one of the best Gainesville birders of the 1990s, moved to Broward County many years ago. He and his brother David recently did some birding and sightseeing around Trinidad, Cuba, and he’s posted several photos from that trip: https://bryantroberts.smugmug.com/Trinidad-Cuba/

If you’re interested, we’re going to look for Great Horned Owl and Barn Owl at the La Chua Trail on Sunday evening. Meet on the boardwalk at 8 p.m.

This morning’s San Felasco Hammock field trip was successful. It started with a bang, when a Broad-winged Hawk flew over the parking lot, giving everyone a good look – except me, since I was across the street checking the trail mileages at the informational kiosk. We went left from the kiosk, following the Yellow Trail, then cut back on the Hammock Connector, and returned to the parking lot via the Blue/Yellow Trail, a walk of about three and a quarter miles. We found the Eastern Wood-Pewee where the Yellow Trail meets the Hammock Connector, got looks at Yellow-throated and Red-eyed Vireos along the Hammock Connector, and, shortly after turning onto the Blue/Yellow Trail, found Acadian Flycatcher and Hooded Warbler. But most of us only heard the Hooded, didn’t see it, so four of us (out of the original ten) crossed the street and walked down the Moonshine Creek Trail a little past the first bridge to a place where a creek flows over the trail, and there we found a Hooded that wasn’t so shy.

Yesterday Chris Cattau found a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron along Camps Canal. “Coming from the road, I think it would have been about 50 yards after the trail does that steep downhill drop.” He sent a map:
https://goo.gl/maps/rLZAHR3SVZ32

Two days ago Karen Brown saw a flock of Wild Turkeys “on the east side of Hague Dairy Road just before NW 156th Avenue.”

More White-winged Doves. Chris Cattau writes, “I’ve had good luck the last two years in the neighborhood just east of Newberry elementary school. This year I pulled over at the intersection of SW 254th Street and SW 17th Avenue in Newberry and saw 4-5 without even getting out of the car, including two mating in a tree in someone’s front yard, and I heard singing coming from what seemed like all directions. Last year I saw two at the same intersection with just a little more effort.” Yesterday Cindy Boyd saw two, and heard several more, in the Watermelon Pond WEA parking lot on SW 250th Street.

Chris Farrell of Audubon Florida requested that this message be distributed to all Audubon chapters in North Florida: “Julington-Durbin Preserve is a great example of Florida’s work to conserve habitats that birds depend on. The preserve is truly a special place that contains rare sandhill habitat that grades down through wetlands to the shores of Julington and Durbin Creeks. It is a wonderful refuge for people and wildlife given the highly developed surroundings. Unfortunately, local developers are attempting to purchase most of this preserve for conversion to more residential development! We need to make sure decision-makers understand the importance of this habitat and refuse the proposal. I’m asking birders to visit the preserve and send me a short summary of their experience. Did you see a unique species, an interesting behavior, or just enjoy the peace of being with nature? I will use these accounts as we talk with decision-makers to avoid losing this special place. Please send any accounts of your visits, including pictures, to Chris Farrell at cfarrell@audubon.org . Thanks for your support!” The Julington-Durbin Preserve is at 13130 Bartram Park Boulevard in Jacksonville. It’s one of only a couple of places in Duval County where you can find Bachman’s Sparrow. If you go, the e-Bird Hotspot is at https://ebird.org/hotspot/L1674650

(By the way, for those too young, too old, or outside the mainstream, the subject line refers to a pop song from 1986.)

This morning Danny Rohan reported a drake Blue-winged Teal at the outflow (far end, that is) of the overflow channel between Cells 1 and 2 at Sweetwater Wetlands Park.

At 4:43 yesterday afternoon Erin Kalinowski emailed, “The pelican must be playing a joke on you … currently, it’s sitting on the same snag as last night. It looks very comfortable, so maybe it will stick around.”

She added, “Last night, a Great Horned Owl was perched in the same oak as last year and easily viewable.” Anyone interested in meeting at the boardwalk for Great Horned and maybe Barn Owls one evening this weekend?

Has anyone found a dark blue field bag with an over-the-shoulder strap? I seem to have lost it. It was a nice one – a gift from Lloyd Davis – and it contained a small Panasonic camera, a Garmin Dakota GPS device, a Belomo hand lens, a laser pointer, a tape measure, and a compass. I’ve looked around the house and in the trunk of my car, so I must have put it down while birding and then walked away from it.

If your June Challenge list needs some San Felasco birds – Eastern Wood-Pewee, Acadian Flycatcher, Hooded Warbler, Yellow-throated and Red-eyed Vireos – join me at 8 a.m. Saturday at San Felasco’s Millhopper Road parking lot and we’ll do our best to check ’em off.

As I mentioned in the last birding report, Jennifer Donsky sighted a Brown Pelican from the boardwalk at La Chua on the 4th. I went down there right away and looked around, but I never saw it. On the 5th Bob Carroll emailed to tell me that it was still there, but that I needed to scan carefully to the southwest. So I went down there right away and looked around, but I never saw it. On the 6th Erin Kalinowski emailed to tell me that it was still there, to the southwest. So this morning I went down there and looked around, but I never saw it. Is this some kind of practical joke?

Two Belted Kingfishers were found this morning. Tom Wronski photographed this one at Sweetwater Wetlands Park. And Jennifer Donsky found another at the Tuscawilla Prairie. We occasionally see early arrivals from the north in late June, but it’s rare to find kingfishers at any other time of the month. These must be spending the summer.

Jennifer – who is kicking some serious birdie butt – also found a Whooping Crane at Tuscawilla this morning. This is the younger of the two Whooping Cranes that have been spending time in Alachua County in recent years. She fledged from a wild nest in Lake County in 2015, so she’s now three years old. She tends to favor the area around the Alachua-Marion county line, having been seen as far north as the Kanapaha Prairie and the southern edge of Paynes Prairie and as far south as McIntosh. She’s been at Tuscawilla since February.

Geoff Parks writes, “There’s at least one American Robin in our neighborhood again this year. We found a singing male on NE 7th Terrace near 23rd Avenue around 8 pm on the 1st.”

Bob Knight saw a Broad-winged Hawk on the 5th, over the intersection of I-75 and US-441 in Alachua. That’s the second Broad-winged reported this month; the first was at the Canterbury Equestrian Center just east of Newberry on the 3rd.

Adam Zions had mentioned to me that he often sees White-winged Doves in the neighborhood around Home Depot Pond. I’d never noticed that myself, but Linda Hensley saw one there on the 5th, “sitting on top of a lamp next to the pond,” so he must be right.

I haven’t heard any Northern Flicker reports, but Lloyd Davis eBirded them from the Watermelon Pond Wildlife and Environmental Area on both the 1st and the 5th. Has anyone checked for them at Northeast Park?

There are several species that can be tough to get on The June Challenge. If you see something good – Hairy Woodpecker, Blue-winged Teal, King Rail, Short-tailed Hawk, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Barn Owl, that sort of thing – be sure to let me know, so that I can share it with everyone else. Remember, it’s a friendly competition. Many a Florida birder has told me that his or her county lacks a cohesive birding community; “It’s not like Gainesville,” they tell me. We’re fortunate here. We’re friendly. So make it a friendly competition and share your good finds. Or I’ll punch you in the nose.

Remember your write-ins, if you’re using an electronic or printed checklist: Mallard, Burrowing Owl, Ring-billed Gull, Spotted Sandpiper, Common Loon, Bobolink, Snail Kite, American Robin.

June Challengers! Jennifer Donsky just now (11:39 a.m.) emailed from her phone to tell me that there’s a Brown Pelican ” floating off dock Alachua sink now.” Go get it!

The presence of at least four Snail Kites at Paynes Prairie and Sweetwater Wetlands Park since early April has prompted speculation as to whether they’re nesting here. Today Paynes Prairie biologist Keith Morin sent out this announcement: “Brian Jeffery, wildlife biologist from the University of Florida, inquired about surveying the Prairie and obtained a Florida Park Service permit. The City of Gainesville Nature Operations Division facilitated airboat launch at Sweetwater Wetlands Park. On Friday, I assisted Brian and MS student Alexis Cardas on a Snail Kite survey covering about 2500 acres of the flooded prairie basin. We saw at least 8 individual birds (unbanded) and finally found one nest! The nest had three young that were approximately 19-21 days old. It was determined that these nestlings were old enough to band; this is the first nest and first banded birds originating from our park and well north of the species’ normal range. We will return in a week to ten days to check back on these fledglings. We are very excited!” A banded adult male has also been photographed on the Prairie, though no one has yet been able to read the alphanumeric code on the band, so that makes 9 individual adults plus the three chicks. This is only the second nesting record in Alachua County history – the first was 99 years ago!

Sunday morning’s Burrowing Owl field trip attracted about 60 participants. I had expected more, given the heavy publicity, but maybe some people stayed home due to the weather forecast. Luckily, the rain held off. Less luckily, the owls spent the first part of the morning barely peering out of their burrows, so that we often couldn’t tell if we were looking at the top of an owl’s head or a cow patty. A large percentage of the crowd left after half an hour or so, which was unfortunate, because later in the morning the owls emerged from their burrows and stood out where we could see them. One of them even flew. We counted ten owls in the field, both adults and young, and county biologist Andi Christman, the land manager for this tract, told me that she was aware of nine active nest burrows scattered across the property, including other fields than this one. (Photos below by Jerry Pruitt.)

Mike Manetz and I had driven out to Watermelon Pond together, and after seeing the owls we stuck around like almost everyone else and birded along SW 250th Street. There was a Common Nighthawk perched in a pine, Eastern Bluebirds on the wires, Red-headed Woodpeckers in the snags, Eastern Meadowlarks in the fields, and a pair of Orchard Orioles in the oaks along the road. Our last stop was the boat ramp at the south end of 250th, but it was birdless, so we headed back. We’d only gotten a hundred yards or so when we encountered a three-foot Florida Pine Snake crossing the road. We jumped out of the car, Mike grabbed his camera, I grabbed the snake, and we got a few photos before sending it on its way. This was only the third Florida Pine Snake I’d seen in the wild during my 61 years. Two of the three have come from Watermelon Pond.

On the way back into town Mike and I stopped at the Home Depot Pond to see the Ring-billed Gull and the Pied-billed Grebe. Alas, the gull was lying dead in the grass. Bob Simons had tossed it there earlier in the morning after finding it on the road, a traffic casualty. The grebe was still alive, though. Mike spotted it swimming out from a willow tree on the back side of the pond toward the right, and we watched as it gave an extended call. The call, the plumage, and the posture (including expanded throat) were just as you see them in the first ten seconds of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVPAXlH7vHw

On their way home from Watermelon Pond, Debbie Segal, John Hintermister, and Barbara Shea stopped at the Canterbury Equestrian Center on the eastern edge of Newberry: “We were doing a drive-through to look for White-winged Doves or Eurasian Collared-Doves when we spotted a soaring raptor that was on the north side of the showgrounds. When it banked, I saw a wide white tail band. It was a Broad-winged Hawk. It then tucked its wings and streamed southward, right over us. We could clearly see the white underwings with a dark trailing edge to the wings and the broad white tail band.” This is less than two miles northeast of where Jason O’Connor reported two Broad-wingeds on April 11th.

Saturday morning’s June Challenge field trip followed the same route as Friday’s – Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve, the Windsor boat ramp, Sweetwater Wetlands Park – but the birds were quieter and less cooperative. We saw about the same species as Friday’s trip, though we missed a few. Two nice surprises, though: a Spotted Sandpiper at the far end of Sweetwater Wetlands Park (thanks to Brad Hall and Howard Adams for the tip), and a Common Loon first seen in flight over Newnans Lake, which then landed on the water so that we could get a distant but identifiable look through our spotting scopes.

A Gray Catbird has been singing at the north end of Tumblin’ Creek Park, just as it did last year and the year before. Tumblin’ Creek Park is located on SW 6th Street at Depot Road, just south of the retention pond. Remember that the parking area is a one-way drive, with the entrance at the south and the exit at the north.

The presence of at least four Snail Kites at Paynes Prairie and Sweetwater Wetlands Park since early April has prompted speculation as to whether they’re nesting here. Today Paynes Prairie biologist Keith Morin sent out this announcement: “Brian Jeffery, wildlife biologist from the University of Florida, inquired about surveying the Prairie and obtained a Florida Park Service permit. The City of Gainesville Nature Operations Division facilitated airboat launch at Sweetwater Wetlands Park. On Friday, I assisted Brian and MS student Alexis Cardas on a Snail Kite survey covering about 2500 acres of the flooded prairie basin. We saw at least 8 individual birds (unbanded) and finally found one nest! The nest had three young that were approximately 19-21 days old. It was determined that these nestlings were old enough to band; this is the first nest and first banded birds originating from our park and well north of the species’ normal range. We will return in a week to ten days to check back on these fledglings. We are very excited!” A banded adult male has also been photographed on the Prairie, though no one has yet been able to read the alphanumeric code on the band, so that makes 9 individual adults plus the three chicks. This is only the second nesting record in Alachua County history – the first was 99 years ago!

Sunday morning’s Burrowing Owl field trip attracted about 60 participants. I had expected more, given the heavy publicity, but maybe some people stayed home due to the weather forecast. Luckily, the rain held off. Less luckily, the owls spent the first part of the morning barely peering out of their burrows, so that we often couldn’t tell if we were looking at the top of an owl’s head or a cow patty. A large percentage of the crowd left after half an hour or so, which was unfortunate, because later in the morning the owls emerged from their burrows and stood out where we could see them. One of them even flew. We counted ten owls in the field, both adults and young, and county biologist Andi Christman, the land manager for this tract, told me that she was aware of nine active nest burrows scattered across the property, including other fields than this one. (Photos below by Jerry Pruitt.)

 

 

 

Mike Manetz and I had driven out to Watermelon Pond together, and after seeing the owls we stuck around like almost everyone else and birded along SW 250th Street. There was a Common Nighthawk perched in a pine, Eastern Bluebirds on the wires, Red-headed Woodpeckers in the snags, Eastern Meadowlarks in the fields, and a pair of Orchard Orioles in the oaks along the road. Our last stop was the boat ramp at the south end of 250th, but it was birdless, so we headed back. We’d only gotten a hundred yards or so when we encountered a three-foot Florida Pine Snake crossing the road. We jumped out of the car, Mike grabbed his camera, I grabbed the snake, and we got a few photos before sending it on its way. This was only the third Florida Pine Snake I’d seen in the wild during my 61 years. Two of the three have come from Watermelon Pond.

On the way back into town Mike and I stopped at the Home Depot Pond to see the Ring-billed Gull and the Pied-billed Grebe. Alas, the gull was lying dead in the grass. Bob Simons had tossed it there earlier in the morning after finding it on the road, a traffic casualty. The grebe was still alive, though. Mike spotted it swimming out from a willow tree on the back side of the pond toward the right, and we watched as it gave an extended call. The call, the plumage, and the posture (including expanded throat) were just as you see them in the first ten seconds of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVPAXlH7vHw

On their way home from Watermelon Pond, Debbie Segal, John Hintermister, and Barbara Shea stopped at the Canterbury Equestrian Center on the eastern edge of Newberry: “We were doing a drive-through to look for White-winged Doves or Eurasian Collared-Doves when we spotted a soaring raptor that was on the north side of the showgrounds. When it banked, I saw a wide white tail band. It was a Broad-winged Hawk. It then tucked its wings and streamed southward, right over us. We could clearly see the white underwings with a dark trailing edge to the wings and the broad white tail band.” This is less than two miles northeast of where Jason O’Connor reported two Broad-wingeds on April 11th.

Saturday morning’s June Challenge field trip followed the same route as Friday’s – Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve, the Windsor boat ramp, Sweetwater Wetlands Park – but the birds were quieter and less cooperative. We saw about the same species as Friday’s trip, though we missed a few. Two nice surprises, though: a Spotted Sandpiper at the far end of Sweetwater Wetlands Park (thanks to Brad Hall and Howard Adams for the tip), and a Common Loon first seen in flight over Newnans Lake, which then landed on the water so that we could get a distant but identifiable look through our spotting scopes.

A Gray Catbird has been singing at the north end of Tumblin’ Creek Park, just as it did last year and the year before. Tumblin’ Creek Park is located on SW 6th Street at Depot Road, just south of the retention pond. Remember that the parking area is a one-way drive, with the entrance at the south and the exit at the north.