Fall: a good time for fall migration…

… and hey, it’s fall! The season’s first Palm Warbler anticipated the season by eight days: it was seen by Howard Adams along the La Chua Trail on the 15th and there have been three sightings since then. Likewise the first House Wren sneaked in before the equinox, showing up in Geoff Parks’s NE Gainesville back yard on the 20th.

The 21st annual fall migration count was held on Saturday the 19th. We fielded 87 observers in 30 parties and covered 13 territories across the county, finding 128 species and 11,296 individual birds. Best sightings included a Short-tailed Hawk and 2 Alder Flycatchers, a Least Flycatcher, one Tree and one Bank Swallow, and a Golden-winged Warbler. We saw 918 warblers of 23 species, the most common of which were Common Yellowthroat (159), Northern Parula (144), and Ovenbird (141). Loggerhead Shrikes continue their decline; we found only six, compared to an average of 17 during 1995-99, and four of them were in one location, the Horse Retirement Farm near Alachua. Likewise Northern Flickers, down to 2 from a 1995-99 average of 8. Big misses included White-winged Dove and Brown-headed Nuthatch. The totals for the count are appended to the end of the email. You can compare this year’s performance with the first five years of the fall count, 1995-99: https://alachuaaudubon.org/local-birding-info/bird-counts/fall/

At least one Alder Flycatcher is still at La Chua, as of the morning of the 23rd. Dean and Sam Ewing saw it – “Heard calling near the beginning of Sparrow Alley. Finally saw it on our way out, while standing along the sidewalk after coming through the horse barns” – and Trina Anderson got a photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/46902575@N06/21467866149/in/dateposted/ It’s not likely to stick around much longer, so see it soon.

Becky Enneis of Alachua noticed one Veery at the drip pool in her back yard, then two, and finally five at once on the 20th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/21421169400/in/dateposted-public/

Our kites are all gone. The last Swallow-tailed of the year was seen northwest of Gainesville by Adam Zions on September 5th. The last Mississippi was seen flying north over Sparrow Alley with a dragonfly in its bill on the 14th, and Frank Goodwin got a photo of it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/21608830906/in/dateposted-public/

Zach Neece has composed a five-minute orchestral piece called “La Florida for Strings: an homage to natural Florida” that’s amazingly beautiful and serene. I was reminded of Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and some of the pastoral pieces of Ralph Vaughan Williams. The music, performed by the University of Florida Symphony Orchestra, plays over a series of nature photographs taken in the Gainesville area by Katherine Edison and Larry Reimer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf6SxoCQJFY

The next Alachua Audubon program meeting is “Harpy Eagles and Chocolate: Conserving Migrant and Resident Birds in Belize.” It will be held on Wednesday, September 30th, in the meeting room of the Millhopper Branch Library (3145 NW 43rd Street), and is open to members and non-members alike. The social hour (well, half hour) begins at 6:30, the program at 7:00. The program will be presented by Jacob Marlin, Executive Director of BFREE (Belize Foundation for Research and Environmental Education), who writes, “The discovery of the first wild Harpy Eagle population in Belize is changing the attitudes of local people about the value of protecting tropical forests. This, coupled with an innovative program to support local farmers to transition from traditional agricultural practices to shade grown organic bird friendly cacao farming, bodes well for the future of migrant and resident birds in Belize.”

Two field trips this weekend, Levy Lake Loop with Matt Bruce on Saturday and Barr Hammock (the forested part) with Michael Drummond on Sunday. On the latter trip we’ll be looking at trees, wildflowers, insects, and everything else, not just birds. Field trip schedule, with meeting times and places, is here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/classes-field-trips/

Alachua Audubon sponsors a Beginning Birding class through Santa Fe College’s Community Education program. The next class will run on four Saturday mornings between October 17th and November 21st, beginning at the tail end of the warbler migration and taking in the arrival of winter birds. If you’re interested, you can sign up by calling (352) 395-5193 or visiting http://epublic.sfcollege.edu (just enter “bird” in the search field).

Vanderbilt University is doing a study on birding ability and needs participants at all levels of skill for a simple online survey. Here’s their pitch: “We are currently conducting a research project testing birding experts funded by the National Science Foundation. We are trying to recruit birders of all experience levels, from beginners to experts. I am writing to ask for your permission to contact members of the Alachua Audubon Society to see if they might be interested in participating in our research. Could you help us to send a brief invitation to your group, either directly by email, forwarded by email on our behalf, or posted in a newsletter or web site? Our experiments are all online. Birders can simply register and participate by copying and pasting this link into their browser: http://expertise.psy.vanderbilt.edu/ If you or your members wish to know more about us, visit our ‘This is Your Brain on Birds’ Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/This-is-Your-Brain-on-Birds/158030504237705?sk=info&tab=page_info or visit our website at http://catlab.psy.vanderbilt.edu/ ” I participated – it took just a few minutes to answer the questions and do the followup bird quiz – and I enjoyed it.

Results of the migration count:

Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 115
Muscovy Duck 50
Wood Duck 27
Mottled Duck 14
Mallard (domestic) 1
Blue-winged Teal 40
duck, sp. 25
Pied-billed Grebe 29
Wood Stork 15
Double-crested Cormorant 23
Anhinga 94
American Bittern 3
Least Bittern 1
Great Blue Heron 47
Great Egret 75
Snowy Egret 29
Little Blue Heron 121
Tricolored Heron 31
Cattle Egret 873
Green Heron 24
Black-crowned Night-Heron 4
White Ibis 267
Glossy Ibis 15
Black Vulture 126
Turkey Vulture 209
Osprey 7
Bald Eagle 19
Northern Harrier 1
Cooper’s Hawk 9
Red-shouldered Hawk 112
Short-tailed Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 10
King Rail 5
Sora 10
Purple Gallinule 21
Commmon Gallinule 272
American Coot 11
Limpkin 19
Sandhill Crane 13
Killdeer 2
Spotted Sandpiper 6
Rock Pigeon 67
Eurasian Collared-Dove 3
Common Ground-Dove 1
Mourning Dove 67
Yellow-billed Cuckoo 8
Eastern Screech-Owl 2
Great Horned Owl 9
Barred Owl 23
Common Nighthawk 3
Chuck-will’s-widow 1
Eastern Whip-poor-will 3
Chimney Swift 26
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 5
Belted Kingfisher 19
Red-headed Woodpecker 18
Red-bellied Woodpecker 250
Downy Woodpecker 181
Northern Flicker 2
Pileated Woodpecker 105
American Kestrel 4
Merlin 2
Eastern Wood-Pewee 20
Acadian Flycatcher 66
Alder Flycatcher 2
Alder/Willow Flycatcher 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Empidonax, sp. 11
Great Crested Flycatcher 3
Eastern Kingbird 2
Loggerhead Shrike 7
White-eyed Vireo 660
Yellow-throated Vireo 23
Red-eyed Vireo 403
Blue Jay 305
American Crow 362
Fish Crow 34
crow, sp. 15
Tree Swallow 1
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 1
Bank Swallow 1
Barn Swallow 88
swallow, sp. 7
Carolina Chickadee 221
Tufted Titmouse 411
Carolina Wren 555
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 344
Eastern Bluebird 101
Veery 115
Swainson’s Thrush 4
Wood Thrush 1
Gray Catbird 3
Brown Thrasher 34
Northern Mockingbird 114
European Starling 10
Ovenbird 141
Worm-eating Warbler 16
Louisiana Waterthrush 2
Northern Waterthrush 61
waterthrush, sp. 2
Golden-winged Warbler 1
Blue-winged Warbler 3
Black-and-white Warbler 32
Prothonotary Warbler 10
Tennessee Warbler 9
Kentucky Warbler 4
Common Yellowthroat 159
Hooded Warbler 38
American Redstart 73
Northern Parula 144
Magnolia Warbler 1
Blackburnian Warbler 4
Yellow Warbler 36
Chestnut-sided Warbler 8
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Palm Warbler 1
Pine Warbler 66
Yellow-throated Warbler 68
Prairie Warbler 38
Eastern Towhee 42
Summer Tanager 54
Scarlet Tanager 4
Northern Cardinal 664
Blue Grosbeak 4
Indigo Bunting 3
Bobolink 1
Red-winged Blackbird 1,236
Eastern Meadowlark 4
Common Grackle 425
Boat-tailed Grackle 291
Brown-headed Cowbird 53
Baltimore Oriole 6
House Finch 34
House Sparrow 2