A western stray and an early winter arrival

From: Rex Rowan <rexrowan@gmail.com>
To: Alachua County birding report

Tom Kent photographed a male Yellow-headed Blackbird at a pond near the west end of Millhopper Road on October 2nd. This is the second-earliest ever recorded here. The only earlier one was found in a blackbird trap in “Alachua County” (the record shows no more specific location) on September 17, 1965; it recently celebrated fifty years lying on its back in a museum drawer. Perhaps celebrated is not the word. Anyway, here’s Tom Kent’s photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/21710650909/in/dateposted-public/

Geoff Parks saw an amazingly early Savannah Sparrow at Sweetwater Wetlands Park this afternoon. That ties the early record set two years ago by Sam and Dean Ewing at the US-441 observation platform.

Andy Kratter reported the winter’s first Ruby-crowned Kinglet in Evergreen Cemetery on the 1st.

I walked the upland loop of the Bolen Bluff Trail this morning with Vicki Evans and Jennifer Donsky. The results were not what we’d hoped for; it wasn’t so much Bolen Bluff as Boring Bluff. No thrushes, tanagers, buntings, grosbeaks, or cuckoos. Didn’t even see a Red-eyed Vireo. Only eleven individual warblers of seven species: 3 American Redstarts, 2 Black-and-whites, 2 Common Yellowthroats, 1 Hooded, 1 Northern Waterthrush, 1 Yellow, 1 Yellow-throated. It’s supposed to clear this evening, at least temporarily, so we may have some new birds tomorrow morning in time for the San Felasco Hammock walk that begins at 8 a.m. at the Millhopper Road entrance. But Pat Burns, writing from the mountains, has a less optimistic forecast than Bob Duncan’s (which I quoted in the last birding report): “Birds have been trapped in the my area of North Carolina and Tennessee since Sept 24. We had 82 of hours of rain before there were brief breaks. Yesterday we had some sun before the rain began again. I watched the weather forecast this morning. My prediction of birds migrating after Oct 3. needs to be revised to after Oct. 6. I will mucking out the Ark until then.”

Well, fall migration peaks during the first two weeks of October. So it’s worthwhile to keep going out, enduring the inevitable dry spells as patiently as you can, because after October 15th (more or less) the number of warblers, thrushes, tanagers, etc., will decline steeply. You only get one Peak Of Fall Migration every year, and the next two weeks are it.

Those of you with smartphones can download the Audubon Bird Guide App for free: http://www.audubon.org/apps

Lake County started its fourth annual “Wings and Wildflowers Festival” today. It will run through Sunday, though the pelagic trip shown on the web site’s front page has been cancelled due to the hurricane. The web page is here – http://www.wingsandwildflowers.com/ – and the brochure listing the programs and field trips is here – http://www.wingsandwildflowers.com/Content/pdfs/2015_WingsWildflowers_Program.pdf

You may have read in this morning’s paper about the Lake City meeting in which 30 people addressed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in opposition to the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline. There will be another such meeting from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 8th, at the Bell High School auditorium at 930 South Main Street in the small community of Bell (northern Gilchrist County, between Branford and Trenton). More information: http://oursantaferiver.org/wp/last-chance-to-confront-ferc-your-presence-needed/ (If you can’t attend the meeting, see the comments at the bottom of the web page.)