Early Bobolinks, Western Tanagers, and a request for information

I’m thinking that the persistence of many fall-migrant warblers throughout last winter – a Worm-eating Warbler, 3 Nashville Warblers, 6 American Redstarts, a Black-throated Blue Warbler, 2 Black-throated Green Warblers, and a bunch of Northern Parulas – is connected with the early spring migration. We’ve had early-arrival records set this spring by Barn Swallow, Yellow-throated Vireo, Chimney Swift, Worm-eating Warbler, and Blackpoll Warbler, and on the 15th several birders reported Bobolinks at Sweetwater Wetlands Park, by one day another early record for the county. Dick Bartlett got a photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26447991395/in/dateposted-public/

Though Phoebe Gordon reported four Mississippi Kites over Gainesville High School on April 1st, daily sightings didn’t commence until April 10th and 11th, when Trina Anderson saw one over last year’s nest tree in her SW Gainesville neighborhood. However sightings are still geographically scattered; I suspect that the majority of birds will arrive when they usually do, after April 20th.

We’ve got two Western Tanagers visiting feeders in Alachua County this spring. The first is at the Lynch home in High Springs, which it likes so well that it’s come for three years in a row now. The second is in SW Gainesville, where it’s visiting the home of Sarah Reynierson, who obtained a photo on the 11th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26197154730/in/dateposted-public/

We see lots of Yellow-rumped Warblers down here, but we don’t see many that look like this one, photographed by Glenn Price at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 15th: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/26452047215/in/dateposted-public/

Saturday’s field trip to Cedar Key wasn’t rained out, as had been forecast, but we had to contend with very strong winds. Birds were therefore fewer and harder to find than would otherwise have been the case. We saw a handful of Cape May, Blackpoll, and Prairie Warblers, but only one Rose-breasted Grosbeak (briefly) and only one Indigo Bunting. No tanagers, no orioles. Two or three Bronzed Cowbirds that have been visiting a feeder at a house behind the museum obliged us with an appearance, and we had quick flyovers by a Reddish Egret and a Merlin at the airfield, but we saw nothing else out of the ordinary.

As I explained a couple of months ago, I’m writing a book on the birds of Alachua County considered from a historical perspective. Occasionally I’ll use this birding report to ask questions about one species or another. Today it’s the European Starling. Although Oliver Austin, the former curator of birds at the museum, claimed that starlings arrived here in the 1930s, that appears to have been a guess. The catalog entry accompanying the earliest Alachua County specimen in the museum, a male collected “three miles west of Gainesville” by J.C. Dickinson, Jr., on 13 Oct 1946, notes, “New county record.” In the course of a 2001 telephone call, Dr. Dickinson informed me that he had shot the bird off a telephone line along Archer Road (“I did all my bird identifications along the barrel of a shotgun”), and he confirmed that it had been the first sighting in the county. The population subsequently grew, as it did everywhere. Though it was missed on the first Christmas Bird Count (1957), it’s been recorded on every one since, sometimes in high numbers. In the eighteen years between 1968 and 1985, there were nine years during which a thousand or more starlings were counted on the CBC, with a maximum of 4,367 in 1976. Thankfully, however, their numbers have dwindled. Over the past twenty years, the largest CBC count has been 538 and the average count has been 218. Over the past ten years, the high count has been 134 and the average count has been 80. The reasons for this decline are not clear to me, but I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. All I’m going to ask is this: Where are all these starlings hanging out? Where do you find starlings in Alachua County, especially in large numbers? I see them at the dairy, I see a few around Citizens Field, but that’s about it. Where are they?

Are you anxious to rub the noses of the Gainfully Employed in the fact that you’re retired? Then Third Thursday Birding is for you! Bob Carroll writes, “Our April 21st Third Thursday field trip will be to Cedar Key. With a little luck, we should be in the heart of spring migration. Early weather predictions are terrific. The morning will start off in the upper 60s and the high for the day will be 81 with a 0% chance of rain. Let’s hope that prediction holds up [Editor’s Note: Ha ha ha!]. Also, the tides should work out for us. Low tide is at 8:18, but it won’t be a really low sea and then will rise throughout the morning. So mid morning should be good at Shell Mound for shorebirds, and early afternoon will be good for gulls and terns on the docks near the airport. Now if the warblers, tanagers and other migrants will cooperate, it should be a terrific day. My plan is to gather in the Target parking lot on Archer Road at about 7:00. We’ll go to Shell Mound first (probably at about 8:30), then to the church to check the mulberry trees. Then we’ll hit the cemetery and museum grounds. Based on the time and the birding, we may also make a stop at the Trestle Trail or drive some of the neighborhoods. Lunch will be at Steamers on Dock Street. We’ll decide on a time once we see how the birding is going. I expect to get back to Gainesville late in the afternoon. It would help to know how many people will be joining us at Steamers. If you’re planning to have lunch with us, please let me know. And also remember to save May 5 for a Breeding Bird Atlas field trip with Adam Kent. I’ll send you details later next week.” Bob can be reached at gatorbob23@yahoo.com

Karl Miller writes, “I am looking for volunteers to help with color band resighting surveys for Florida Scrub-Jays in Ocala National Forest. We are looking for experienced birdwatchers who can walk two or three miles without any physical limitations. Volunteers will work in teams of two or three, and will be driven to the site and accompanied during the survey by FWC personnel. Dates of the survey are April 23, 25, and 26, and they can come for any of those days they wish. It’s a great time of year to be out in the scrub and see nesting kestrels and other cavity-nesting birds too!” If you’re interested, contact Karl at karl.miller@myfwc.com or 352-575-3023.