From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report
September 1st will mark one hundred years since Martha, the last of all the Passenger Pigeons on earth, died in the Cincinnati Zoo.
When I was in high school my favorite author was the late Allan Eckert, who wrote several realistic novels about wild creatures. Wild Season was one of his best, a dramatic and beautifully-plotted depiction of the natural world that was sympathetic without being too sentimental. Eckert also wrote novels about the extinction of two North American bird species, one about the Great Auk called The Great Auk (now sold as The Last Great Auk) and one about the Passenger Pigeon called The Silent Sky. Both were painfully affecting, and I see from Amazon’s customer reviews of The Silent Sky that my experience was not unique: “Some books test your humanity, rip you apart and put you back together in a new way, and this is one….This book was compelling to read and impossible to forget….Rarely have I openly wept while reading a book; this is one such book. My God, what did they do….”
In my late twenties I wrote Eckert a fan letter, and one of the highlights of my life was the day this titanic figure of my youth telephoned to thank me for it.
Anyways, I think I may have linked to this before: http://www.lostbirdfilm.org/
It’s not, alas, available from Netflix, but this one is: http://www.abirdersguidetoeverything.com/ (Watch for Kenn Kaufman’s cameo at the end.)
The reason I’m telling you about these books and movies is that everyone seems to be staying inside, so you might as well do something bird-related if you’re staying inside. The reason I think everyone is staying inside is that NOBODY’S REPORTING ANY BIRDS TO ME!
Maybe the migration is just really slow. The number of migrant warblers being reported (to me, or to eBird) is much smaller than normal for late July. John Hintermister saw the county’s first American Redstart of the fall at his place north of Gainesville on the 29th. Deena Mickelson saw the fall’s first Prairie Warbler at Ficke Gardens (immediately south of the Baughman Center at Lake Alice) on the 27th. Though there have been seven Black-and-white Warblers reported, there hasn’t been a single Yellow. On the 28th I walked a mile out the north fork of the Levy Lake Loop – the section the neighbors want to close – in search of Yellow Warblers, but had no luck.
Speaking of Levy Lake, it looks as though the County Commission will delay their decision on the trail until October, after the election and after budget talks. Hopefully they will not turn our 6.5-mile loop into a twelve-mile out-and-back death march, but they will require frequent reminding: bocc@alachuacounty.us I’ll probably schedule a couple field trips out there so that you can see what’s at stake.
Al Lippman got this video of 100+ Swallow-tailed Kites over a melon field west of The Villages on July 18th: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9-OEWdejiY&feature=youtu.be
There’s a new Facebook page for young (under 26) birders: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Jocotocowanderings/
Last but not least, the American Ornithologists’ Union just published its 55th Supplement to the Check-list of North American Birds. Changes to Florida birds are nil. Clapper Rail and King Rail have both been split, the former into Clapper and Ridgway’s Rails, the latter into King and Aztec Rails; however Florida birders will not be affected unless they’ve seen Clapper Rail in the southwestern U.S. (now Ridgway’s) or King Rail in Mexico (now Aztec). A couple of the parrots have been shifted from one genus into another, Nanday Parakeet from Nandayus into Aratinga, and Mitred Parakeet from Aratinga into Psittacara. Nutmeg Mannakin has been renamed Scaly-breasted Mannakin. You can see the Supplement here: http://aoucospubs.org/doi/pdf/10.1642/AUK-14-124.1