From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
I’m up in Jacksonville, checking my email before I head back to Gainesville for 24 hours, and I see that Chris Burney has just this morning (11:50) reported Alachua County’s first-ever Bell’s Vireo along the fenceline trail at Paynes Prairie where the Groove-billed Ani has been seen. Here’s a map showing the location he sent me:
Good luck if you go for it!
From: Rex Rowan [rexrowan@gmail.com]
Subject: Alachua County birding report
Hey, make a note if you’re planning to join the January 5th field trip to Alligator Lake: the driving directions on the Alachua Audubon web site are wrong. Here’s what they should say: “From I-75 take US-90 east through Lake City and turn south on Old Country Club Road (also known as SE Avalon Avenue or County Road 133). Entrance to parking area is 1.5 miles south on the right side of the road.” Thanks to Tom Camarata for pointing out the mistakes to me.
We’ve got some gifted photographers around here, and some of you may be interested in the 2013 Wildlife and Nature Photography Contest being held by Audubon of Martin County. They’ve put together a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Speaking of photographers, Adam Zions found and photographed some uncommon birds in the conservation lands north of Newnans Lake on the 30th. He started at Gum Root Park, where he saw two Henslow’s Sparrows in the big field, then drove a couple of miles east on State Road 26 to the Hatchet Creek Tract, where he found a Red-breasted Nuthatch (not to mention a Brown-headed Nuthatch, which is resident at Hatchet Creek but can be hard to find).
I haven’t heard of any definite sightings of the Groove-billed Ani recently, though visiting Tennessee birder David Kirschke and his daughter thought they heard it on the 27th, “about half way between the Sweetwater Overlook turn off and the next bend in the trail.” If you see it, please let me know. The last positive sightings were by Lloyd Davis and Adam Zions on the 23rd, when Adam got a picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/
Mike Manetz found a big flock of ducks off the crew team parking lot on the 18th, and Andy Kratter saw them in the same place on the 23rd: “300+ Ring-necked, 25 or so Lesser Scaup, 8 Redhead, 5 Canvasbacks, and a bunch of American Coots. Four Red-breasted Mergansers were quite far offshore, as were 2 Horned Grebes.” I found most of the same birds still present in the late afternoon of the 24th, but by the 30th they’d dispersed and their place had been taken by Ruddy Ducks and Bonaparte’s Gulls, plus one hunting decoy.
Here finally are the results of the December 16th Gainesville CBC:
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 207
Muscovy Duck 90
Wood Duck 821
Gadwall 34
American Wigeon 6
Mallard 29
Mottled Duck 89
Blue-winged Teal 81
Northern Shoveler 14
Northern Pintail 64
Green-winged Teal 1
Canvasback 5
Ring-necked Duck 252
Lesser Scaup 312
Black Scoter 6
Bufflehead 4
Common Goldeneye 1
Hooded Merganser 125
Red-breasted Merganser 4
Ruddy Duck 500
Northern Bobwhite 13
Wild Turkey 46
Common Loon 3
Pied-billed Grebe 74
Wood Stork 28
Double-crested Cormorant 772
Anhinga 187
American White Pelican 137
American Bittern 12
Great Blue Heron 134
Great Egret 206
Snowy Egret 177
Little Blue Heron 163
Tricolored Heron 77
Cattle Egret 211
Green Heron 17
Black-crowned Night-Heron 79
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1
White Ibis 2,013
Glossy Ibis 528
Roseate Spoonbill 1
Black Vulture 343
Turkey Vulture 1,144
Osprey 8
Bald Eagle 82
Northern Harrier 42
Sharp-shinned Hawk 12
Cooper’s Hawk 12
Red-shouldered Hawk 164
Red-tailed Hawk 64
King Rail 2
Virginia Rail 5
Sora 252
Common Gallinule 82
American Coot 883
Limpkin 6
Sandhill Crane 3,009
Killdeer 247
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 54
Lesser Yellowlegs 55
Least Sandpiper 2
Wilson’s Snipe 398
American Woodcock 7
Bonaparte’s Gull 30
Laughing Gull 1
Ring-billed Gull 330
Herring Gull 2
Forster’s Tern 30
Rock Pigeon 70
Eurasian Collared-Dove 9
Mourning Dove 495
Common Ground-Dove 7
Groove-billed Ani 1
Barn Owl 5
Eastern Screech-Owl 16
Great Horned Owl 55
Barred Owl 64
Eastern Whip-poor-will 2
Selasphorus, sp. (probably Rufous Hummingbird) 1
Belted Kingfisher 38
Red-headed Woodpecker 32
Red-bellied Woodpecker 284
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 61
Downy Woodpecker 118
Northern Flicker 38
Pileated Woodpecker 129
American Kestrel 56
Merlin 3
Least Flycatcher 4
Eastern Phoebe 580
Vermilion Flycatcher 1
Ash-throated Flycatcher 10
Loggerhead Shrike 38
White-eyed Vireo 203
Blue-headed Vireo 44
Blue Jay 276
American Crow 621
Fish Crow 297
crow, sp. 45
Tree Swallow 6
Carolina Chickadee 204
Tufted Titmouse 248
Red-breasted Nuthatch 4
Brown-headed Nuthatch 4
House Wren 236
Winter Wren 1
Sedge Wren 52
Marsh Wren 129
Carolina Wren 420
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 387
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 405
Eastern Bluebird 173
Hermit Thrush 27
American Robin 2,583
Gray Catbird 205
Northern Mockingbird 180
Brown Thrasher 15
European Starling 43
American Pipit 124
Sprague’s Pipit 2
Cedar Waxwing 54
Ovenbird 2
Northern Waterthrush 6
Black-and-white Warbler 69
Orange-crowned Warbler 105
Common Yellowthroat 292
Northern Parula 3
Palm Warbler 830
Pine Warbler 204
Yellow-rumped Warbler 1,910
Yellow-throated Warbler 28
Prairie Warbler 8
Wilson’s Warbler 2
Yellow-breasted Chat 2
Eastern Towhee 187
Chipping Sparrow 488
Field Sparrow 20
Vesper Sparrow 57
Savannah Sparrow 515
Grasshopper Sparrow 20
Henslow’s Sparrow 2
Le Conte’s Sparrow 6
Fox Sparrow 4
Song Sparrow 74
Lincoln’s Sparrow 6
Swamp Sparrow 455
White-throated Sparrow 62
White-crowned Sparrow 35
Summer Tanager 4
Northern Cardinal 832
Indigo Bunting 2
Painted Bunting 1
Red-winged Blackbird 9,915
Eastern Meadowlark 382
Common Grackle 585
Boat-tailed Grackle 727
Brown-headed Cowbird 12,798
Baltimore Oriole 29
House Finch 72
American Goldfinch 372
House Sparrow 11
We’ve gained two minutes of daylight since the solstice! Two minutes! Yes! And the first Purple Martins should be back within three weeks, maybe four. So it’s nearly spring. Watch your feeders for Pine Siskins and Purple Finches, which tend to show up after January 1st.
The management and staff of the Alachua County Birding Report, Inc., TM, LLC, LOL, ROTFLMAO, would like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a Happy New Year.
From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
Several of us were at Lake Wauberg shortly after the park opened on Monday morning, but the Black Scoters had already left. You can at least enjoy Greg McDermott’s photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/8285468295/in/photostream
Having failed at Lake Wauberg, we went on to the La Chua Trail to look for the Groove-billed Ani, but missed it too. However the bird was simply feeling antisocial on Monday and was relocated on Tuesday morning. Mike Manetz wrote: “I went to check for the Ani again today and had no luck until I ran into Lloyd Davis, who had seen it earlier this morning. He showed me the spot and we got it to respond vocally to a recording, and finally it popped up briefly. It seemed very shy. Going west on Pasture Trail (aka Sparrow Alley, aka Service Road), it was in the first large blackberry patch on the right after passing Sweetwater Overlook.” The fenceline trail / Pasture Trail / Sparrow Alley is at the beginning of La Chua. Right after you exit the old barn and go through the gate, cut back in front of the barn and walk along the fence toward the powerlines. You’ll have the fenceline on your right and wild plums and weeds and grass on your left. Oh the heck with it, here’s a map: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203358630947857947932.0004d12c9cb58d35a96dd&msa=0&ll=29.609264,-82.305901&spn=0.009962,0.013797
Jonathan Mays, who first found the ani, posted photos of it – as well as some other birds he saw during the Christmas Count, such as LeConte’s Sparrow, Ash-throated Flycatcher, and Vermilion Flycatcher – on his Flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmays/sets/72157632269055398/
I’d add that, if you go looking for the ani, keep an eye out for a Nashville Warbler first seen by Dalcio Dacol in the shrubby habitat along the fenceline trail below Sweetwater Overlook on November 23rd. I think I glimpsed it while trying to find the ani on Monday morning, but it was a very quick look and I couldn’t coax it into view again.
Searching for the Canvasback found on the Count, Mike Manetz had scoped Newnans Lake from Palm Point and Powers Park without luck. On his way home, he pulled into the crew team parking lot, where East University Avenue dead-ends at Newnans Lake, and found “a huge raft of ducks within viewing range. Mostly Ring-necked Ducks and Lesser Scaup, there were also four or five Redheads, a hen Northern Shoveler, and sticking out like a sore thumb, a drake Canvasback.” It was Mike’s 255th Alachua County bird in 2012. This may be like Barry Bonds’s 73-home-run season, a record never to be broken. But it raises the question – has Mike been using steroids? I think a congressional inquiry into the use of steroids in birding has long been overdue.
You may have heard that there’s been a huge invasion of Razorbills on both coasts of Florida, mainly the Atlantic side but recently a few places on the Gulf as well. To see a Razorbill you’d normally have to travel to Maine and take a boat to one of the rocky islands where they nest. The few previous Florida records involved beached birds that were dying or already dead. That’s certainly not the case this year. A large percentage of the Razorbills being seen in Florida right now are flying – often in flocks! – and feeding actively, such as the bird in this remarkable video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEthm_8SPuM Someone on the video comments that it resembles a penguin as it flies around underwater. It’s an apt comparison; the word “penguin” was first applied (in the 16th century) to the Razorbill’s larger cousin, the now-extinct Great Auk, and was adopted for the Antarctic birds because of their resemblance to auks.
St. Johns River Water Management District made its recommendations on the disposal of its properties (or sections thereof), which in Alachua County included Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve, Lochloosa Conservation Area, and the Hatchet Creek Tract of the Newnans Lake Conservation Area. You can see links to maps here: http://floridaswater.com/landassessment/Alachua/
I’m not sure, but I think the 161 or 162 species seen on today’s CBC is a record for the Count. Highlights in brief:
BLACK SCOTER: First county record. Six on Lake Wauberg. Be there first thing Monday morning!
Groove-billed Ani: One along the fenceline trail that cuts back toward the powerlines after you’ve walked through the barn at the beginning of the La Chua Trail. The bird was where the powerline cut intersects the fenceline trail.
Sprague’s Pipit: Two on Kanapaha Prairie, exactly where they were on the last CBC.
Ash-throated Flycatcher: TEN on Paynes Prairie, scattered among four territories. (TEN!)
Least Flycatcher: Four on Paynes Prairie.
Red-breasted Nuthatch: One in Micanopy, three in one tree (!) near the Kanapaha Prairie.
Canvasback: Five on Newnans Lake.
The rest in taxonomic order: Red-breasted Merganser 4, Yellow-crowned Night-Heron 1, Roseate Spoonbill 1, Limpkin 5, Spotted Sandpiper 1, Laughing Gull 1, Winter Wren 1, Northern Parula 1, Wilson’s Warbler 1, Yellow-breasted Chat 2, Le Conte’s Sparrow 6, Lincoln’s Sparrow 6, Summer Tanager 4, Indigo Bunting 2, Painted Bunting 1.
The last week has produced a few really remarkable days of birding.
You may remember that Dalcio Dacol saw a possible Ash-throated Flycatcher near the La Chua observation platform on the 29th. No one was able to relocate it, but on December 2nd Jonathan Mays photographed a definite Ash-throated at the end of the Bolen Bluff Trail. One might assume that it was the same bird as Dalcio’s – simply because, after all, how many Ash-throated Flycatchers could we possibly have on the Prairie at once? They’re a rare bird, right? So anyway, on December 4th John Hintermister, Howard Adams, Mike Manetz, and Jonathan Mays did a little Christmas Count scouting. They started at Persimmon Point, where they found … an Ash-throated Flycatcher. Then they went on to Cones Dike, and in the very spot frequented by two Alder Flycatchers in September, they found three … count ’em, three … Ash-throateds IN THE SAME TREE. And not just in the same tree, IN THE SAME BINOCULAR FIELD. So that’s four separate sightings, and five or six separate Ash-throateds, between November 29th and December 4th. (Other good birds seen on the same day included a Lincoln’s Sparrow at Persimmon Point and a Yellow-breasted Chat on Cones Dike. Normally these would be the stars of the show, but not on a Four Ash-throated Flycatcher Day).
A party consisting of Mike Manetz, Jonathan Mays, Adam Kent, Frank Goodwin, and Julia Willmott returned to Cones Dike on the 7th, and Jonathan was able to get a picture of two Ash-throateds perched in the same tree. The group also found a Least Flycatcher, a Virginia Rail, and a Fox Sparrow. (All three Ash-throateds were still present on Cones Dike on the 8th, according to Adam Zions and Sidney Wade.)
Frank Goodwin must be wearing American Birding Association aftershave laced with sparrow pheromones, because he’s been finding sparrows like no one’s business. On the 2nd he photographed a Henslow’s Sparrow in the big field at Gum Root Park, a traditional place to look for them. On the 8th he and his wife Irina had a ten-sparrow day along the fenceline trail near the beginning of La Chua, including three relative rarities: two Lincoln’s Sparrows, a Clay-colored, and a Fox. Irina also saw a female Painted Bunting at the beginning of the trail. All of this in about a quarter of a mile. Frank remarks that the fenceline trail is “fast becoming my very favorite winter birding walk in all of Alachua County (if not the entire U.S.).”
Red-breasted Nuthatches are still around, as witnessed by three birds on successive days this week: I saw one at San Felasco Hammock on the 3rd, Geoff Parks heard one near Blues Creek on the 4th, and one visited Pat Lanzillotti’s NW Gainesville feeder on the 5th.
On the 6th Andy Kratter saw a Limpkin at Lake Alice. One was seen there multiple times early this year, but no one could find it after April. It may have been in the vicinity, keeping to the extensive swamp east of the main lake. Anyway, John Hintermister visited Lake Alice on the 8th and got a picture of it.
The female Vermilion Flycatcher is still being seen at La Chua, most recently by Jason Fidorra on the 7th. Greg Stephens photographed it on the 5th.
The goldeneye behind the Butterfly Rainforest exhibit appeared to have a yellow bill in the original photo that I received. Barrow’s Goldeneye has a yellow bill. But later photos showed that it had a dark bill, typical for a Common Goldeneye.
I remember Tom Webber saying that he expects to hear Northern Cardinals singing right about the time of the winter solstice. I always thought they started later than that, maybe a week or so after New Year’s Day. But I’ve heard them singing in my back yard each morning since December 1st. What with this and the early arrival of Cedar Waxwings and American Robins, it’s a strangely advanced winter in some ways.
According to the American Birding Association, Nanday Parakeet AKA Black-hooded Parakeet is now countable in Florida (be sure to read the comments): http://blog.aba.org/2012/12/52-bird-species-added-to-aba-checklist.html
John Winn has a cousin who runs a bird rehab facility in Maine, and every December she compiles her favorite photos from the preceding year. You should look at these if only to see the downy American Woodcock chicks: http://www.avianhaven.org/avianhavenslides2012.pdf
Shirley Lasseter made me aware that the Duck Pond, where Muscovy Ducks formerly reigned supreme, is now the domain of Black Swans. They’ve been there about three weeks and haven’t killed anyone yet, and I understand that’s pretty good for Black Swans.
There are three local Christmas Bird Counts coming up after the Gainesville Count. All could use your help:
Tuesday, December 18: Ichetucknee / O’Leno. Contact Ginger Morgan Ginger.Morgan@dep.state.fl.us
Thursday, December 20: Hamilton County. Contact Jacqui Sulek jsulek@audubon.org
Thursday, December 27: Lake City. Contact Valerie Thomas v.thomas57@gmail.com
From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
Alachua Audubon will hold its annual Holiday Social this coming Friday, December 7th, from 6:30 to 9:00. Please join us for refreshments, a silent auction to benefit Alachua Audubon, and of course the customarily brilliant and high-toned conversation of your fellow bird enthusiasts. This year Audubon board member Lynn Rollins is opening her home for our festivities. Lynn lives in Colony Park, a little west of Gainesville High School. Here’s a map, with Lynn’s house marked by an inverted blue teardrop: https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=203358630947857947932.0004cfcb2b711575242b3&msa=0&ll=29.668534,-82.342122&spn=0.007104,0.009645 We hope to see you there. In fact, if you don’t show up, we may come looking for you…
Myiarchus is a genus of flycatchers with five members in North America, all of which look pretty much alike: Great Crested, Ash-throated, Brown-crested, Dusky-capped, and LaSagra’s. The first three of these have been recorded in Alachua County. Great Cresteds are of course common from late March through mid-September. Ash-throateds have been recorded 15-20 times over the past twenty years. Brown-cresteds have been recorded twice, Dusky-cappeds and LaSagra’s not at all. On the 29th Dalcio Dacol wrote, “A bit before noon today I saw from the observation platform and on the same row of bushes that the Vermilion Flycatcher has been frequenting on the west side of the trail, a Myiarchus flycatcher which I think is an Ash-throated Flycatcher. I saw it from the platform with 10x binoculars, it had that washed-out gray tone with prominent and bright rufous patch on the wing edge and on the upper tail, it also didn’t look as robust as a Great Crested Flycatcher. I had a good, but short, view of the back and of the right side of the bird but did not see the underparts. It didn’t fly away but dove down into the thick vegetation cover. I waited around the area for about half an hour but didn’t see it again.” He went back on the following day and spent two hours, playing vocalizations of the four Myiarchus species, but he didn’t see the bird again.
On the 30th Frank Goodwin saw a Snow Goose from the La Chua observation platform. Mike Manetz walked out on the 1st and got a look at it, his 253rd species for Alachua County in 2012.
This morning’s Alachua Audubon field trip to the La Chua Trail didn’t find either the Snow Goose or the Myiarchus flycatcher, but did amass a list of 80 species, including the resident female Vermilion Flycatcher, a Merlin, and 10 species of sparrows (11 if you include Eastern Towhee, which – and you’d know this if you’d looked over the Alachua County checklist – is just as much a sparrow as the others), the best of which were 5 Vespers, a Field, a Grasshopper, and a Lincoln’s. The Whooping Crane seen on the 27th and 28th has not been spotted since then.
Doug Richard reported a female Yellow-headed Blackbird at the Hague Dairy on the 29th.
On the 1st Matt and Erin Kalinowski found and photographed a female Common Goldeneye on the UF campus: http://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/8235771567/in/photostream At least I think it’s a Common. The all-yellow bill is a field mark of Barrow’s Goldeneye, but of western Barrow’s rather than eastern; the National Geographic Society field guide notes that female Commons’ bills are “rarely all-yellow.”
Yellow-breasted Chats are normally very reclusive birds, and it’s tough to get a picture of one even when it’s singing. On the 21st Greg Stephens got an outstanding shot of a chat that may well be wintering on Burnt Island at the south end of Lake Lochloosa: http://www.photographybygregstephens.com/p622066799/h4d9ddb42#h4d9ddb42
John Killian also saw the resident female Vermilion Flycatcher and “maybe 600-800 Sandhill Cranes flying from the northwest,” while Hintermister and friends recorded 20 Mallards (rare around here), 100 Soras, and a Merlin.
On the 27th Mike Manetz found a Western Kingbird at Palm Point, “in the largest deciduous tree on the left (with forked trunk, yellowing leaves, looks like some kind of elm?) before you get to the point.” To me Palm Point seems like an odd place for a kingbird, but this isn’t the first one seen there: John Hintermister found a Western there on 13 December 1996, and Gray Kingbirds were there on 29-30 September 1994 and 5 September 2001.
Felicia Lee and Glenn Price reported two Red-breasted Nuthatches at their feeder on the 27th.
Loons are still migrating. Michael Drummond and I saw a flock of 20 going southwest over Balu Forest on the 28th.
On the 21st a Gainesville birder who wishes to remain anonymous heard what sounded to him like a Red Crossbill’s flight call. It’s not impossible; the museum has specimens collected near Cedar Key in 1908. Other birds to watch out for this fall and winter: Purple Finch, Dark-eyed Junco (one has already appeared at a feeder in town), and Brewer’s Blackbird (three were in Apalachicola last weekend).
The online Alachua County checklist was compiled in 1997. It lists 315 species of birds. As of November 2012, that number should be 355. Obviously an update is long overdue. Revision of the various early and late dates will take me a while, since they’re scattered through old emails on my computer. So last weekend I compiled a simple taxonomic list, in current AOU order, of all the birds recorded in Alachua County up to the present day, including those that no longer exist (Passenger Pigeon, Carolina Parakeet), those that still exist elsewhere though local populations have disappeared (Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Florida Scrub-Jay, White-breasted Nuthatch), and a few that were probably escapes (Southern Lapwing, Blue-crowned Parakeet, etc.). Some of you may want to print it out, others will want to bookmark it, several will want to ignore it entirely. I’d suggest beginning and intermediate birders at least give it a once-over. Taxonomic relationships can be enlightening. Some birders don’t realize that Blue Jays are crows, that swifts are the nearest relatives of hummingbirds, or that rails are first cousins of coots and gallinules and second cousins of Limpkins and cranes. Anyways, take a gander (bird pun!). Please notify me if I’ve left anything out:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wy7QYUrwRDc2zo0m15fjP0RwMC2FPoqgLYYkrlEAN8s/edit (Documentary photos of many of the rarer birds on the list can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/sets/72157594281975202/ )
Dalcio Dacol walked out the La Chua Trail on the morning of the 19th in search of the Vermilion Flycatcher and the Le Conte’s Sparrow. He found both, plus a Sora – all, in his words, “showing well” – and he managed to get them all on video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4VebbrlTks
Also on the 19th, also at La Chua, John Killian got this nice photo of a Merlin: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/8200665219/in/photostream That’s a male, and on the same day Jonathan Mays got a picture of a female, so La Chua is hosting at least two right now:http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmays/8201745446/
Jonathan also photographed a Great Blue Heron eating a Greater Siren, a large aquatic salamander: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmays/8201746158/in/photostream/
Rob Bowden heard two Pine Siskins in a flock of American Goldfinches on the morning of the 19th.
I mentioned that southbound Common Loons have been seen overhead recently. Some of them have been landing in local waters as well. Carol Lippincott saw one paddling around on Lake Wauberg on the 18th, and on the 17th an Alachua Conservation Trust field trip saw one on Newnans Lake (four more flying over), plus two Horned Grebes and four Buffleheads, from the Powers Park fishing pier.
Migrant Sandhill Cranes don’t usually arrive here till late November or early December – Steve Nesbitt has commented that they seem to be arriving later, and leaving earlier, every year – but birders have been reporting high-flying flocks since late October. Andy Kratter saw 25 going over his SE Gainesville yard in the wake of a big cold front on October 29th, and on the same day Jonathan Mays and Trevor Persons counted 76 (in two V flocks) going over the La Chua Trail. Adam Kent saw 56 flying over Poe Springs on November 17th. However there don’t seem to be any large congregations at Paynes Prairie yet, so these early flocks – despite their large size – may be composed of local birds. (There aren’t any flocks at the UF Beef Unit fields at Williston Road and SW 23rd Street, either, but according to Steve the cranes often spend their days foraging in marshes until after the first freeze.)
Hey, did you know that the Reader’s Digest had a hand in halting the Cross Florida Barge Canal? And that President Nixon almost reversed his order to end construction? It’s a fascinating piece of Florida history – not to mention a prime example of what citizen environmentalists are capable of – and nobody can tell the story better than Stephen Noll and David Tegeder. Please join us at the Millhopper Library at 7:00 on Tuesday night.
The Vermilion Flycatcher that John Hintermister first found on the 8th was still at the La Chua observation platform on Friday morning, when Frank Goodwin managed to get a photo of it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/8197165695/in/photostream
It was still there on the 18th, too, and seen by Frank, Mike Manetz, and Charlene Leonard. As they approached the observation platform – “in the largest patch of barnyard grass, about half way between Gator Point and the platform” – they saw a Le Conte’s Sparrow, and Charlene managed to get a photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/8197165399/in/photostream (By the way, “barnyard grass” is the fluffy blonde stuff in which all the Savannah and Le Conte’s Sparrows were hiding at Orange Lake last winter.)
Saturday’s Cedar Key field trip, led by Caleb Gordon, was hugely successful. In addition to five Red-breasted Nuthatches at the museum, there was a White-winged Scoter “incredibly close and cooperative” off the downtown fishing pier (still present and “extremely viewable just off the beach on the road to the airstrip” on Sunday, along with a Surf Scoter, according to Dale Henderson), a Peregrine Falcon seen by all, and a Short-tailed Hawk seen by a few on the road to Shell Mound. On the way back to Gainesville, three of the cars made a detour to a birding spot south of Bronson, where they found an Ash-throated Flycatcher and a Clay-colored Sparrow.
Vismig Common Loons – if you haven’t been keeping up with your British birding slang, “vismig” means “visibly migrating” – continue to pass overhead on their way to the Gulf. On the morning of the 17th Adam Kent saw 15 going over his SE Gainesville home and I saw 5 going over J.J. Finley Elementary School.
Barbara Woodmansee visited the Hague Dairy today, looking for birds, but found herself distracted by the great variety of butterflies: “Had 4 White M Hairstreaks, every sulphur species there is except Dogface, including 8-10 Orange Sulphurs! I watched one laying eggs in the clover. Long-tailed Skipper and Dorantes Longtail, Zebra Heliconians, Gulf and Variegated Fritillary, Carolina Satyrs, Fiery Skippers, Clouded Skippers, and Whirlabouts, both Painted and American Ladies – lots of them, including late instar American Lady caterpillar. Lots of White Peacocks and Common Buckeyes, a Monarch, Phaon Crescents, lots of Checkered Whites and checkered-skippers (I think I saw both Tropical and Common). No swallowtails of any kind – sort of surprising. We had 24 species in about 2 hours – not bad for late November!”
Red-breasted Nuthatches are still around. Linda McMahon saw one at her SW Gainesville home on the 11th and 12th. Effie Smith saw “several” at the Cedar Key museum and cemetery on the 13th, which should make Saturday’s Cedar Key field trip interesting. Field trip schedule: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/aud/calendar.htm
Jonathan Mays and I birded Watermelon Pond on the morning of the 13th. Jonathan heard two Red-breasted Nuthatches from the little park at the south end of SW 250th Avenue, and we spished one of them into a small tree just over our heads. We also saw two Merlins chasing around, and a few ducks: four Ring-neckeds, three Northern Shovelers, and an American Wigeon. Farther north on 250th we walked a short distance into the Watermelon Pond Wildlife and Environmental Area and came across a big mixed flock of Chipping Sparrows, Pine Warblers, Palm Warblers (including a lot of Yellow Palms), and Eastern Bluebirds feeding on the ground.
Watch your hummingbird feeders. Ron Robinson of NW Gainesville has had a Selasphorus (Rufous or Allen’s) on and off since the 8th, and Bob Wallace had two Selasphorus at his place on the 10th. Ron’s got a lingering Ruby-throated as well.
In case you haven’t heard, Elliott Schunke found a Red-necked Grebe in Tallahassee on the 13th. It’s a real rarity for Florida. Here’s a map: http://goo.gl/maps/f1t43
I called your attention to Bob Carroll’s blog recently, because he’s in Texas. But he’s not the only one – David and Kim Stringer have been looking at birds and butterflies in south Texas over the past week: http://memorystringer.com/memorystringer.com/Blog/Entries/2012/11/12_Entry_1.html (when you reach the bottom of the page, click on “previous”).
The eBird web site suggests that late fall birding could get verrrrry interesting: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/november-bird-movements
The 4th Annual Ichetucknee/O’Leno/Santa Fe Christmas Bird Count will be held on Tuesday, December 18th (two days after the Gainesville Count). If you’re interested in participating, contact Ginger Morgan at Ginger.Morgan@dep.state.fl.us