Category: Birding Reports

Matt Bruce and I went kayaking on Newnans Lake this morning to see the congregations of shorebirds he’s photographed there before. We put in at Powers Park, headed over to the mouth of Prairie Creek, and started working our way north along the eastern shoreline. There were lots of Long-billed Dowitchers and Lesser Yellowlegs and Least Sandpipers, smaller numbers of Solitary Sandpipers, Greater Yellowlegs, and Killdeer, and a single Semipalmated Sandpiper. I was supposed to attend a presentation on tiger beetles by Jonathan Mays at noon, so as it neared 11:00 we gave some thought to turning around and heading back. But we figured we had just enough time to investigate the next cove to the north. And there we found a large shorebird with a black head, black breast, and black back, with black and gray and white mottling on the wing coverts and lower belly, and orange legs. It was Alachua County’s second-ever Ruff. The county’s first was also found at Newnans Lake during a period of low water, on January 12, 2000. It stuck around for two months. This one is a male coming into breeding plumage and en route to European nesting grounds, so it may not stick around quite as long.

The location was somewhere between half to two-thirds the distance from the mouth of Prairie Creek to Windsor. It *might* be possible to do it on foot (probably from Windsor), but you may end up having to walk part of the way in the woods. A kayak or canoe would be better, and it lets you get closer to the birds.

Matt got better pictures than I did, but here are two of mine, one showing Matt photographing the Ruff and one showing the bird itself.

 

Not long ago I predicted that Newnans Lake would be an excellent shorebird spot if the drought continued. Two days later – of course – we had heavy rain. I assumed that the shorebirds had been flooded out, but I was wrong. Matt Bruce, who originally discovered the shorebirds on the 1st, went back on the 14th and kayaked all the way around the lake. He found six shorebird species in the same place he saw them before, near the Prairie Creek inlet. They included 272 Long-billed Dowitchers, 107 Lesser Yellowlegs, 82 Least Sandpipers, 5 Black-necked Stilts, 2 Solitary Sandpipers, and 1 Greater Yellowlegs. His other sightings included two locally-rare Brown Pelicans, 176 American White Pelicans, and 11 Prothonotary Warblers. You can view his eBird checklist, with a lot of nice photos, here. He writes, “I was pleased to see that the water level was approximately the same as it was the last time I went out, despite last week’s rains. If you decide to take a kayak out, the best birding bang for your paddling buck would be to put in at Powers Park and head straight for the mouth of Prairie Creek. The largest concentration of shorebirds is in this area. You should see several Prothonotary Warblers if you go in the morning. Also, the American White Pelicans frequent this area. If you paddle a little farther north, along the eastern shore of the lake, you will see smaller concentrations of shorebirds and likely some Bonaparte’s Gulls – one yesterday was in full breeding plumage. The Brown Pelicans, however, were all the way on the far north end of the lake.”

The Swainson’s Warbler at Loblolly was last reported to eBird on the 13th. Geoff Parks saw it at 10:30 in the morning, “right along the east side of the boardwalk, maybe 75 meters north of the marked spot where others have seen it.” But when Dean Ewing went looking for it at 6 p.m., “it was right at the marked spot on the boardwalk but 20 feet off feeding behind a small palmetto. Found by listening for the rustling sound as it turned over leaves. It trembled and shook its body as it fed, a behavior that must aid it in stirring up insects” (this trembling, noted by several birders, is characteristic of the species, and Cornell’s Birds of North America came to the same conclusion as Dean: “Birds also exhibit ‘pattering’ or rapid vibration of the feet when foraging, which may help flush prey items, and contributes to the impression of an erratic gait”). I don’t know if anyone has been looking for this bird since then. If it moved on after the 13th, its six days’ visit makes it the second-longest-staying Swainson’s in the county’s history. Only one stayed longer, a bird that Reed Noss found singing on territory at San Felasco Hammock on June 10, June 13, and June 18, 1986 (no followup on this bird was ever reported). Did I ever link to Glenn Price’s photo of the bird singing in response to a tape on April 9th? Shame on me. Here it is.

Elizabeth Martin reported a Bay-breasted Warbler near the first trail split (if you go right at the kiosk) at San Felasco Hammock’s Blue/Yellow Trail on the 8th. It’s improbable for three reasons: (1.) it’s the only report from Florida so far this year, (2.) it’s rare for Alachua County in spring (only two previous records, both in late April), and (3.) it’s six days prior to the earliest ever recorded in Florida according to Stevenson and Anderson’s The Birdlife of Florida (published in 1994). On the other hand, her description was spot on: “Saw a bird with an extensive amount of cinnamon/rusty color on throat and flanks of breast. The front part of the face that was seen was all black (I could only see the underside of the bird and just a little of the side to see the front of the face). There was no yellow color seen on the face of this bird from the angle I viewed it. The rest of breast and belly appeared light cream/white in color, and the edges of the wings had some white feathers that appeared could be the beginning of wing bars amidst the dark color of the wing.” You have to weigh the improbabilities against the actual evidence. I can’t think of anything else fitting that description. Can you? If you can, please let me know!

Painted Buntings are coming through. Adam Kent and I walked the East Trail at Newnans Lake State Forest on the 15th and found a male perched in a pine tree. That evening Adam was sitting on his porch with wife Gina and Chris Burney and they spotted Adam’s second male Painted Bunting of the day. Bubba Scales had a male in his yard on the 7th, 8th, and 9th, Trina Anderson found a male at Chapmans Pond on the 12th, and Trina and Barbara Shea reported a female at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 14th.

Other migrants:

The first Worm-eating Warbler of the spring was seen by Keith Collingwood in his Melrose yard on the 3rd. Since then additional birds have been reported regularly, at ten additional sites.

The summer’s first Yellow-billed Cuckoo was calling at John Hintermister’s place north of Gainesville on the 4th and 5th. Only three additional birds have been seen since then.

Our first Black-throated Blue, not counting the one that wintered at Bubba and Ingrid Scales’s place (still there on April 12th), was reported by Lloyd Davis at San Felasco Hammock on the 8th. No more were seen until this morning, when single birds were reported from two other sites.

On the 8th Laura Gaudette photographed a Canada Goose on Newnans Lake. In a birding report last July I noted that “of the 13 more-or-less credible sightings in Alachua County since 2000, seven took place between March 19th and April 14th, which suggests a spring migratory movement.” This makes eight out of 14.

Felicia Lee reports that this morning’s Alachua Audubon field trip along the La Chua Trail saw the season’s first Bobolink, a male “flying across the trail near the observation platform.” Just one day shy of the early record for Alachua County.

No Cape Mays or Blackpolls yet. But you should keep an eye out, because last year’s spring migration peaked between April 15th and April 23rd.

I was wrong about the location of the Swainson’s Warbler found by Ben Ewing on the evening of the 7th. Scott Robinson, Lloyd Davis, Will Sexton, and I showed up at the south end of NW 25th Terrace, and spent about twenty minutes birding back and forth along the boardwalk. Then Ben Ewing rolled up on his bike. “Hi, Ben!” we said, “Thanks for discovering this great bird. But we can’t find it!” And Ben said, “That’s because you’re on the wrong boardwalk.”

So we followed the boardwalk down to the sidewalk on NW 8th Avenue and went west about 200 yards. There we turned north onto another boardwalk, and after 75 yards or so we saw a plastic bottle jammed into the fence below the railing on the left side, and a wide piece of tape. And on the ground just below the tape – put there by Dean and Sam Ewing – was the Swainson’s Warbler, walking around turning over dead leaves as Swainson’s tend to do. All of us got excellent looks. It was a county lifer for Lloyd and Scott, and a lifer-lifer for Will.

Maybe it’ll be there tomorrow. Or maybe not. This was the 29th Swainson’s Warbler for Alachua County. Of those, 10 have been in spring (3 April-30 April, with one doubtful record from 10 May 1980), 2 have been in summer, and 17 have been in fall (8 August-21 October, about half of those between 10 September-30 September). I called Mike Manetz to tell him about the bird, and he said – with a confidence I’ll never possess – “I’ll get it in fall.” And he might. He saw two last fall. But prior to 2016, the three last fall sightings came in August 2010, August 2009, and October 2004. So I ran out to have a look, just to be on the safe side.

Lloyd Davis photographed a Cliff Swallow at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 7th, sitting on a fence among Tree Swallows of various plumages: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/33773783841/in/dateposted-public/

(By the way, if you go to Sweetwater, watch out for Killdeer nests along the trail and alert the rangers if you find one so they can rope it off.)

Peter Polshek found a Northern Waterthrush at San Felasco on the 4th, on the trails south of Millhopper Road.

Grace Kiltie spotted two Blue Grosbeaks, the first of the spring, at her SW Gainesville feeder on the 2nd.

As I got out of my car in the La Chua parking lot on the 31st, I heard a towhee calling “tweet” repeatedly from the wild plums just before the bike trail. I didn’t remember ever seeing a towhee in that area before, and wondering if it was a migrant red-eyed towhee I hurried down to see it. As I neared the plum, I heard a little preliminary “chk” before each “tweet” and realized that I was listening, not to a towhee, but to a White-eyed Vireo. He’d done the call 8-10 times without breaking into a vireo song. I found him and watched him for a few minutes, but he didn’t do it again, so I walked on. I got as far as the composting toilet when he started again. I immediately turned back, counting his tweets as I went. There were 14 total, but I was only close enough to hear the preliminary “chk” during the last two. I watched him for another five minutes as he foraged around, but he never made another tweet, and he never, during all the time I was in earshot, gave a typical song.

Writing a humorous song is not easy. Except, apparently, for Mike Manetz (author of the famed “Newnans Lake limericks”), because this is a very funny song: https://soundcloud.com/manetzma/i-like-eggs-talkin-chicken-blues

The Alachua Audubon Society will have its annual picnic on Wednesday, April 12th. All are invited. It will be held at Bubba and Ingrid Scales’s house at 3002 SW 1st Way, Gainesville, located in the Colclough Hills neighborhood between south Main Street and Williston Road (look for the AAS signs). Bring some food to share and a drink of choice, and enjoy visiting with Alachua Audubon members and the Board of Directors. This will be a fun gathering and an opportunity to share our more recent spring migration observations.

And make plans to attend the Florida Ornithological Society meeting on the weekend of April 21-23. Adam Kent writes, “It’s going to be a very fun event with keynote speakers Dr. Marianne Korosy from Audubon Florida and Dr. John Fitzpatrick from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology talking about citizen science. There will be other speakers on Saturday afternoon, a citizen science panel, and lots of excellent field trips to great spring migration birding sites sites. Plus, there’s no way you can beat the registration or banquet prices!” More information here: http://www.fosbirds.org/sites/default/files/spring_2017_registration.pdf

Ten minutes ago I got an email from Ben Ewing: “I found a Swainson’s Warbler off the boardwalk between 8th and 16th Ave near our place. It was right off the west side of the boardwalk, 75 yards or so north of 8th Avenue, foraging on the ground. I put a plastic bottle through the fence next to where it was. The bird was still there when we left 15 minutes ago. I attached a couple of dad’s pictures.”

To be clear about the location: from NW 16th Avenue turn south on NW 25th Terrace and go all the way down. The boardwalk is at the end of the road.

The sun won’t set for another hour and a half. Go get it!

Nice work, Ben (the find) and Dean (the photos)!

You heard it here first! Or second! Or maybe fifth! Oh well. Anyway, the water level in Newnans Lake is falling, as it did in 1999-2000 and again in 2012. If it continues to do so, and the shorebirds take advantage of it as they did in 2000 – we had 30 shorebird species at the lake between January and September that year – then this could be a very interesting April and May. On the 1st Matt Bruce kayaked out Prairie Creek into the lake and paddled north toward the Windsor boat ramp. He ended up with 7 shorebird species: 340 Long-billed Dowitchers (by far the largest count of this species ever recorded in Alachua County), 105 Lesser Yellowlegs, 20 Greater Yellowlegs, 2 Solitary Sandpipers (the spring’s first), 3 Black-necked Stilts, 40 Least Sandpipers, and 1 Stilt Sandpiper. If the water level continues to drop, we should be able to walk east along the shoreline from Powers Park and south from the Windsor boat ramp and tally waders and shorebirds by the hundreds. It doesn’t get much more exciting for a birder in Alachua County than low water at Newnans Lake. Here are a few photos from May 2012 to give an idea of what it’s like:

Anyway, I’m telling you so you’ll be prepared. It could be good.

On the 31st Howard Adams spotted the spring’s first Short-tailed Hawk, a dark-morph bird flying over the Prairie Creek bridge on Hawthorne Road. Hard to believe that they used to be rare. The county’s first-ever was shot on February 27, 1926, and it was almost 70 years before the second one showed up. There were five reports throughout the 90s; contrast that with the single month of June 2015, when at least three individual birds were seen during The June Challenge.

Mike Manetz and Brad Hall found two Hairy Woodpeckers at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve on the 2nd, along the Red Loop, “in the open patch of turkey oak just beyond the little blue camping ahead sign.”

Grace Kiltie welcomed a Nashville Warbler to her SW Gainesville birdbath on the 2nd.

Jennifer Donsky saw a Cliff Swallow at the Hague Dairy on the 1st.

Summer Tanagers took their sweet time getting here. The spring’s first was seen by Scott Robinson at Split Rock Park on the 1st, and two others were reported at different sites on the 2nd.

The spring’s first Prothonotary Warblers showed up on the 30th, one in John Hintermister’s yard north of Gainesville and one at Keith Collingswood’s place in Melrose.

The first Chimney Swifts of the year showed up at UF’s Dauer Hall chimneys on the 29th, as witnessed by Richard Stanton. Unless the first was a single bird seen by Pamela Graber at Dauer Hall on the 22nd. She reported it to eBird as a Vaux’s Swift, but didn’t explain how she made her ID. Prior to that, the Vaux’s had last been reported on the 9th.

Craig Parenteau saw the first Eastern Kingbird of the year on March 28th near his place on the western edge of Gainesville.

Darrell Hartman reported the season’s first Yellow-crowned Night-Heron at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 27th. Away from salt water, I see these reported most often from rivers, but we usually have one or two pairs that nest around Paynes Prairie.

JoAnne Russo saw a Roseate Spoonbill at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 15th, the earliest spring visitor I’ve ever heard of. Apparently it hasn’t been spotted since.

On February 5th, Geoff Parks saw a pair of American Kestrels at the Osprey nesting post across 8th Avenue from the Gainesville Police Department. I was doubtful that it meant anything; in Alachua County, breeding kestrels keep to wide open spaces like the pastureland along the upland ridge running from High Springs to Archer, and that’s been the case for decades. But last year on March 6th a Pennsylvania birder named Cynthia Lukyanenko, cooling her heels at the Gainesville airport (“At least flight delays allow for a little extra birding”), saw something that no one had reported inside the city limits since the 1950s or 60s: “There’s a pair nesting in the glass enclosure of one of the outdoor lights near gate 1. Visible from the passenger area of the terminal. One was sitting on the nest, and the other arrived shortly thereafter with what looked like a small lizard.” Karl Miller and I didn’t hear about it until mid-April – a month and a half after the report – and, not surprisingly, we saw no signs of nesting activity, though we did see one or more kestrels. The pair at the 8th Avenue pole, by contrast, have been under observation since Geoff’s original sighting. They’re occupying a nest cavity, and the female has been sitting in the cavity entrance being fed lizards by the male. Karl tells me that urban kestrels are common farther south, but this is the first for Alachua County. Or the second, if you count the pair at the airport.

You’ve probably seen your last Eastern Phoebe of the season. There, there.

I try to keep track of seasonal firsts, but a lot of them have flown in under the radar:

Howard Adams saw a Purple Gallinule at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 4th. Peter Polshek, Laura Gaudette, and JoAnne Russo saw two along the La Chua Trail on the 13th. Both sightings strike me as early for this species, which normally doesn’t show up until the last week of March. However it winters not far south of here – as far north as Lake County – so the warm winter may have lured a few of them into an early migration.

Peter, Laura, and JoAnne also saw the spring’s first Black-necked Stilt at La Chua on the 13th. Stilts have been reported steadily since, in numbers up to five.

Matt Bruce recorded the season’s first Red-eyed Vireo at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens on the 19th. Two were seen or heard at two different locations on the 22nd, and four more at three additional locations on the 23rd. By the way, late March and early April are a good time to try for the vireo quartet at San Felasco Hammock: Red-eyed, White-eyed, Yellow-throated, and Blue-headed can all be heard singing in a single morning. Blue-headeds will be gone by the end of April.

And speaking of San Felasco, Tom Hoctor saw two Hooded Warblers, the season’s first, while walking the Yellow Trail at the Millhopper Road entrance on the 27th.

Still among the missing as of the 28th – though expected within the next week – are Summer Tanager, Chimney Swift, and Prothonotary Warbler. Blue Grosbeak and Orchard Oriole might also show up then, though they average a little later, with Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Acadian Flycatcher, and Eastern Wood-Pewee not usually getting here until mid-April, and most of the Mississippi Kites arriving after April 20th.

Loon watching has been rather slow so far, though last Sunday’s field trip counted 15 or 16 flying north over the Mill Creek Preserve. According to the data that Andy Kratter has accumulated over the past 14 years, the best time for observing loons over Gainesville is 65-99 minutes after sunrise, and sunrise at Cedar Key over the next week (March 29-April 5), which should encompass the peak of loon migration, will range from 7:25 to 7:16. So if my arithmetic is right, prime time for loon-watching in Gainesville during the next week will range from 8:30-9:04 on the 29th to 8:21-8:57 on the 5th. Weather permitting, of course, set up a chair in the back yard, or any open place that faces west, and watch for big white-bellied, black-headed birds flying over. If you’d like to join me on Friday the 31st, I’ll be watching from Paynes Prairie’s US-441 observation platform starting at 8:00 a.m.

A pair of Fish Crows is nesting in a clump of pines one street over from my NE Gainesville yard. They’re notorious nest raiders, so it doesn’t bode well for the other birds in the neighborhood. Is anyone else seeing crows carrying nesting material or sitting on nests?

Saturday’s Alachua Audubon field trip to San Felasco Hammock will be led by Adam Kent. Meeting time and place here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/event/san-felasco-hammock-millhopper-road-entrance-3/?instance_id=565 As usual, Audubon will be sponsoring two field trips per weekend during the peak of spring migration, from Saturday, April 8th through Sunday, May 7th (excepting April 16th). And don’t forget our Wednesday Wetland Walks at Sweetwater Wetlands Park; just show up any Wednesday morning at 8:30 and there should be a field trip getting ready to go.

The Native Plant Sale is coming up at Morningside Nature Center. Native Plant Society and Friends of Nature Parks members get the first crack at what’s available on Friday, April 14th, while non-members relegated to Saturday, April 15th. What a good reason to join these fine organizations! More information at the Parks & Recreation web site: http://www.cityofgainesville.org/ParksRecreationCulturalAffairs/NaturalResourcesandPrograms/NatureHeritageEvents.aspx

Reminder: the Alligator Lake Festival in Lake City will take place on Saturday, April 8th: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4E7iNkfaDyUNU55aFgwaUhxeWxXTG8xWjJDWGc2dGhMN3pv/view?usp=sharing
The festival schedule looks like this:
8:00 – Bird Walk
10:00 – Kids’ Bird Walk
11:00 – Butterflies with Mark Minno
12:00 – Meet the Eagle
1:00 – Butterflies with Marc Minno
3:00 – Time to go home
Pat Burns reported two White-faced Ibises at Alligator Lake on the 28th. Maybe they’ll stick around.

Though a couple of American Redstarts seem to have wintered here – one at the Hague Dairy and one at Kanapaha Botanical Gardens – the spring’s first seems to have been one that Jennifer Donsky found at Depot Park on the 20th.

Prairie Warblers are also moving through. The one Karl Miller saw at the Wildlife Research Center on the 10th was followed by one that Jonathan Mays saw at La Chua on the 16th, one that Howard Adams saw at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 22nd, and one that was singing in my neighbor’s NE Gainesville back yard this morning (the 23rd).

Indigo Buntings are moving in. Setting aside as a probable wintering bird one that Ken Spilios found along Sparrow Alley on February 14th, the spring’s first was a male that Carol Wooley photographed at her NW Gainesville feeder on March 7th. About eight more have been reported since.

I don’t normally expect Great Crested Flycatchers until the last week of March, but increasingly they’ve been showing up earlier. This year’s first was one that Matt Bruce heard vocalizing steadily for three minutes at Kanapaha Botanical Garden on the 19th. Jessica Hightower heard another calling for a minute at Newnans Lake State Forest on the 20th. eBird shows two additional reports on the 21st and eight more on the 22nd. So I think they’re here.

Summer Tanager, another species that normally shows up at the end of March, doesn’t seem to have arrived yet, though a few wintering birds are still around.

Chandler Robbins died on the 20th. He was the creator of the Breeding Bird Survey and the primary author of the Golden Guide (1966), the first field guide to compete with Peterson’s. The Golden Guide was a required text in my college ornithology class, and because it was a softcover that fit easily into my back pocket it was the one I took with me in the field during the first years of my birding career. It’s the only field guide to inspire a separate book devoted to its mistakes – Rich Stallcup’s Birds For Real (1985) – but Stallcup’s criticisms were aimed primarily at Arthur Singer’s illustrations (“Sprague’s Pipit: On page 257 it appears that maybe the specimen or photo used to paint the picture was the wrong species”) rather than Robbins’s text. Laura Erickson posted a nice remembrance of Robbins that combines her personal experience of Robbins’s great kindness with an account of his remarkable accomplishments. The photo of his binoculars is worth clicking the link all by itself: http://blog.lauraerickson.com/2017/03/chandler-robbins-19182017.html

Bob Carroll and I birded the Little Orange Creek Preserve on the 6th. It’s a nice place, and I expect it will be especially good in fall migration. As you follow the two-mile trail out, you’ve got marshy Little Orange Creek on your left and uplands (in the process of restoration) on your right. There are two observation towers along the way. A trail map is here (map on page 2 of the PDF) and our checklist for the morning is here. eBirders, please use the existing hotspot if you check it out yourself.

The Rise of the Hipster Birdwatcher, from London’s Daily Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/rise-hipster-bird-watcher/  (I’ve always believed that I was cool before cool was cool.)

The UF College of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation sponsors an “Osprey Cam” overlooking an Osprey nest at the UF baseball field. On January 28th the Ospreys showed up at the nest site, and according to The Independent Florida Alligator, “The second egg came three days after the first one, which was conceived [?!] on March 9.” I suspect the reporter meant the egg was laid, rather than conceived (kids these days!). Anyway, you can watch the progress of the Ospreys here: http://www.wec.ufl.edu/extension/ospreycam/

If you’ve got Nandina AKA Heavenly Bamboo in your yard, you might consider removing it. It’s been implicated in the death of Cedar Waxwings: http://www.decaturish.com/2017/03/invasive-bushes-in-decatur-killing-cedar-waxwings/  (Thanks to Steve Hofstetter of the county’s Environmental Protection Department for alerting me to this.)

On Saturday morning you’ve got a tough choice. You can join Deena Mickelson and Alachua Audubon on a field trip to the Mill Creek Preserve. Or you can attend the Bird Walk and Gallery Talk, hosted by Ernesto Reyes, which is part of Bulla Cubana, “a celebration of arts and culture, promoting the exchange of ideas and inspiration between Cuba and the North Central Florida region.” The Bulla Cubana Bird Walk will begin at Sweetwater Wetlands Park at 7:30 a.m., and it will be followed by the Gallery Talk at 10:30. Cuban coffee will be served at the latter event. You need to make a reservation for Bulla Cubana here. If you’re a competent birder and you’d like to help Ernesto guide people around Sweetwater, contact Bubba Scales by tomorrow night by emailing him at fodderwing@bellsouth.net

Put it on your calendar. Alligator Lake Festival in Lake City on Saturday, April 8th: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4E7iNkfaDyUNU55aFgwaUhxeWxXTG8xWjJDWGc2dGhMN3pv/view?usp=sharing
The festival schedule looks like this:
8:00 – Bird Walk
10:00 – Kids’ Bird Walk
11:00 – Butterflies with Mark Minno
12:00 –  Meet the Eagle
1:00 – Butterflies with Marc Minno
3:00 – Time to go home

Andy Kratter was planning to begin his annual loon watch – code name Loonacy – on the 15th, but at 8:56 on the morning of the 11th I spotted a flock of seven northbound Common Loons flying over Sparrow Alley, and I think that’s nudged him into an early start. Most mornings between mid-March and mid-April (peaking around April Fools’ Day), you can see loons migrating over Gainesville beginning about an hour after sunrise. Nearly all are Common Loons, but of the seven Red-throated Loons seen in Alachua County over the years, two were spotted by Andy during his spring loon watches. If your yard has a fairly wide view of the western sky, you can do your own loon watch. Set up a lawn chair facing southwest at about 8:15 (Daylight Savings Time) and watch for black-headed, white-bellied birds flying north on pointed wings. For a photo of a flying loon and additional details of Andy’s loon watch, click this blog post from two years ago: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/62/loon-migration-over-gainesville/

Louisiana Waterthrushes are early migrants in both spring and fall, passing through mainly in March and July-August. We’ve had only two reports so far this spring: Karl Miller saw one at Barr Hammock’s Levy Lake Loop on the 5th and Mike Manetz saw one at San Felasco’s Moonshine Creek Trail on the 6th.

Another migrant warbler that begins its passage in March is the Prairie Warbler. Karl Miller saw one at the FWC Wildlife Lab on the edge of Paynes Prairie on the 10th. It might have been a wintering bird – a handful stick with us through the cold months every year – but it could just as easily have been a northbound transient. Start watching for them.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds reliably arrive in this area during the first week of March, but as of March 12th none have been reported to eBird (as I consult my review screen). One did visit Dick and Patty Bartlett’s SE Gainesville feeder on the 4th and as I was putting together this birding report on the morning of the 12th Andy Kratter emailed to report one at his SE Gainesville home.

The spring’s first Yellow-throated Vireos have shown up. Adam Zions found the season’s first at his SW Gainesville home on the 7th, and they’ve since been reported by Deena Mickelson at Mill Creek Preserve on the 8th, by Tom Webber at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve on the 9th, and by Anne Casella at San Felasco Hammock on the 11th. No Red-eyed Vireos yet, but they should be here any day.

Barbara Shea and I found at least 35 Rusty Blackbirds at Magnolia Parke on the early afternoon of the 12th. Lately the birds have been dividing their time between the wetland at the back of the property and the grassy parking medians in the commercial-medical area. Judging by past years, they won’t be here much longer.

The Vaux’s Swifts roosting at UF’s Dauer Hall stuck around into April last year; this year’s most recent report came on the 9th, when Alex Lamoreaux saw 3 -5 enter the chimneys between 7:34 and 8:00 (adjusted for Daylight Savings Time).

On the 11th I walked Sparrow Alley and the La Chua Trail with two excellent Jacksonville birders, Jeff Graham and Candice Davis. Along Sparrow Alley we were saddened to see Ospreys vainly attempting to nest on the metal power line stanchions. Supposedly nesting platforms will be erected at some point, but I suspect it will be too late for this season. At the end of the main trail we found the water all but vanished. Looking south toward the largest part of Alachua Lake we saw an enormous lawn with a narrow channel of water bordering it to one side, and looking north we saw rapidly-dwindling shallows in which we counted over a hundred shorebirds, including Least Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitchers, and two Dunlins. Other sightings of interest included the male Vermilion Flycatcher, pretty close to full adult plumage, and a flock of 12 American Pipits, rather late for this species. What we didn’t see was equally remarkable: no Sandhill Cranes at all, no Pied-billed Grebes, few ducks of any sort, few American Coots or Common Gallinules, few Wilson’s Snipe, few sparrows of any sort.

I mentioned in my last birding report that Paynes Prairie’s Whooping-Crane-in-residence had apparently been photographed on the Prairie as far back as 2013 and 2014. I sent the photos to FWC’s Tim Dellinger, who confirmed that it was the same bird and added, “I first tracked 1644 to Paynes Prairie in April 2009. She was there in 2010, 2011, and 2012 too.” I asked if she was one of the pair who hatched out (but could not raise) a pair of chicks in May 2010, and he replied, “No, she has never bred to our knowledge. Too few birds, and a very small number of those are males.” So she’s been visiting Paynes Prairie for eight of her eleven years. And she has a name of sorts: 1644. Did you see that she made the front page of the Gainesville Sun on the 11th? http://www.gainesville.com/news/20170310/whooping-crane-makes-surprise-appearance (Note that three of the four photos are by Gainesville birder Frank Goodwin.)

I ran into Kelly MacPherson of the county’s Environmental Protection Department at Publix the other day. She told me that Barr Hammock is scheduled to open in April. I’m not referring to the Levy Loop Trail, which opened in February 2013, but to the extensive forest trails immediately to the south, between Levy Lake and Ledwith Lake.

The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is asking the public to help them census the plants and animals in their Wildlife Management Areas. Watermelon Pond will be one of their more important ones. You take your smartphone or camera along with you, photograph what plants and animals you can – or in the case of birds make a sound recording – and submit the results here: http://floridanaturetrackers.com/florida-nature-trackers/projects/

Swallow-tailed Kites are here, a little earlier than normal. Deena Mickelson saw the region’s first over I-75 in Ocala on the 26th. Alachua County’s first of the spring were three that Phil Sandlin saw over his place at Archer on the 28th and two that Linda Hensley saw over her NW Gainesville home on the 3rd.

Swallows are here too: the first Barn of the spring was seen by Ben Ewing at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 2nd. By the 3rd, according to Lloyd Davis, there were 15. On the same day he tallied seven Northern Rough-winged Swallows at Sweetwater, and on the 4th he spotted a Cliff Swallow, by ten days an early-arrival record for the county. On the 5th Mike Manetz missed the Cliff, but saw a Bank Swallow, possibly the same one that Sidney Wade first noticed there on the 23rd.

Speaking of swallows, on the 4th I checked the I-75 / Williston Road overpass and found two Barn Swallows working on nests. There are lots of old nests there, on the undersides of both the northbound and southbound lanes, but all are either north or south of the Williston Road traffic lanes; there are none directly above the road itself. Barn Swallows seem to nest under all, or nearly all, of Alachua County’s I-75 overpasses now. Little-known fact: They didn’t nest in Florida until the middle of the 20th century. The first nest was discovered in Pensacola in 1946, and Jack McLeod found the first in the peninsula inside a Paynes Prairie culvert in June 1971.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds usually show up during the first few days of March, just like Barn and Rough-winged Swallows, but as of the 5th the only eBird records I see for Alachua County are individuals that spent the winter.

Scott Robinson has had a Pine Siskin visiting his feeder in SW Gainesville since February 23rd.

Bob Palmer notified me that he had a Rose-breasted Grosbeak in his NW Gainesville yard from the 16th to the 23rd. Andy Kratter’s wasn’t seen after the 25th. So, to review the winter season: there was a one-day wonder in early December that was probably a tardy migrant; there was one that showed up in NW Gainesville on December 26th and remained for over two months, a legitimately wintering bird; and then there were two or three during the period from February 16th to February 25th, which makes no sense to me.

Speaking of wintering birds, the Black-throated Blue Warbler visiting Bubba Scales’s SE Gainesville yard since December 2nd was still there on March 1st.

The Whooping Crane that’s been present at Paynes Prairie since April moved over to Sweetwater Wetlands Park last week, sighted by a German birder on the 28th and photographed by Frank Goodwin on the 2nd while it was showing off: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/33206291626/in/datetaken/ Well I say it’s been here since April, but I’ve got photos of a Whooping Crane showing the same band combination (blue over silver on the left leg) from March 2014 and March 2013.

I saw a pair of thrashers carrying nest material into my backyard yaupon hedge on February 24th. The existing early egg date for Brown Thrasher in Alachua County was established by Oliver Austin, the former curator of birds at the FLMNH, who found a nest with three eggs in his SE Gainesville yard on March 14, 1970.

I hadn’t seen many Cedar Waxwings during December or January, but their numbers seem to have picked up during the last two or three weeks. Does that jibe with your own observations, o dear readers?

Extinction and “endlings,” from The New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/what-do-you-call-the-last-of-a-species

The Acadia Birding Festival in Bar Harbor, Maine, is accepting registrations. They’ve made an enticing video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxNl4QFvrlM&feature=youtu.be

The Audubon Society of Vermont has a good idea: pay farmers to accommodate the nesting season of Bobolinks by modifying their mowing schedules. If you like Bobolinks you may want to donate: “As Bobolinks begin their northward migration to Vermont, the April 1 deadline for donations for the 2017 Bobolink Project is fast approaching, with only 6 weeks left: http://www.bobolinkproject.com/. The number of farms accepted into the program depends entirely on how many donations we receive by April 1, when we start creating the contracts.”

This Saturday is Alachua Audubon’s Backyard Birding Tour, which will allow you to explore six Gainesville yards that have been highly successful at attracting birds. Get some ideas for your own place! It’s all self-guided. Audubon members, including me, will be present at each place to point birds out, and the homeowners will be on hand to answer any practical questions. Here are the details: https://alachuaaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/yard-tour.pdf

Although a very few Northern Parulas spend the winter with us, arriving residents usually show up and start singing at some point between February 20th and March 1st. They’re on schedule this year, with four birds reported between the 18th and the 21st, including a singing male that Scott Robinson found at San Felasco Hammock on the 19th – and then TEN were reported on the 22nd. So they’re here. Usually Yellow-throated Warblers begin singing at the same time as Northern Parulas, but this year they started early: Adam and Gina Kent heard one at their place in SE Gainesville on February 3rd and 15th, Andy Kratter heard another near his home in SE Gainesville (a couple of miles south of Adam and Gina) on the 8th, and Alex Lamoreaux heard a third at Powers Park on the 15th. I’ve always wondered whether the Yellow-throated Warblers that nest here are the same ones that winter here, and this suggests that they might be.

There have been three sightings of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks in Alachua County this winter. One has been visiting Karen Brown’s NW Gainesville feeder since December 26th (still present February 22nd). Andy Kratter saw one at his place in SE Gainesville on February 20th and 21st.  And Bubba Scales saw one at his birdbath in SE Gainesville on February 21st. There’s a possibility that the latter two sightings could involve the same bird, since Bubba lives about a mile WSW of Andy. This is about two months too early for the grosbeaks’ spring migration.

County Commissioner Mike Byerly got an excellent photo of our winter-resident Peregrine Falcon on the afternoon of the 13th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/30736692@N00/32062203704/in/dateposted-public/  I’d forgotten that he has a degree in zoology and did grad work in ecology, qualities I like to see in a County Commissioner! This Peregrine is a banded bird, and in addition to the metal USFWS band it wears a blue (or green) band on the other leg. Dalcio Dacol reported it to the Bird Banding Lab, but their database turned up nothing. The falcon was most recently seen on the 20th by Lloyd Davis.

If you were to ask the dogwoods, it’s spring. After a trip to La Chua on the 21st I’m inclined to agree. Wild plums, wild cherries, and sugarberries were leafing out, and any number of early spring wildflowers were in bloom. And lots of alligators were basking along the banks of the canal – I stopped counting at 125. In other parts of the state, Swallow-tailed Kites are showing up, so our first of the year should be along in the next week or so. And keep your eyes open for Short-tailed Hawks as well; they usually arrive on North Florida nesting grounds at about this time (though they haven’t actually been confirmed nesting in Alachua County yet).

Loonacy will be starting in three weeks. If you don’t know what Loonacy is, here are some details: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/62/loon-migration-over-gainesville/

There are quite a number of proposals – and proposals is all they are, they haven’t been adopted – coming before the AOU Checklist Committee this year. Split Yellow-rumped Warbler into three species, split Willet into two, change the name of Ring-necked Duck to Ring-billed Duck, it’s a long list. The American Birding Association’s blog explains the proposals in two posts: Part One and Part Two.

A genealogically-minded cousin recently sent me a web page about a member of the Cellon family (pronounced SEE-lun), for whom San Felasco’s Cellon Creek is named. John Cellon was a Frenchman who established a 100-acre nursery “ten miles north of Gainesville” in the late 1830s. He lived there until his death in 1881 and was among the first to grow oranges in peninsular Florida. His son George moved to Dade County in 1900 and set up a nursery of his own, where he was the first person in North America to cultivate avocados and mangos. (The genealogical connection, in the unlikely event that you’re wondering, is that a sister of George’s married a Chesser, a distant cousin of mine.)

Remember the Backyard Birding Tour this Saturday!