I spent about an hour and a half (12:30-2:00) at Palm Point today, looking for migrant warblers. I had the place to myself, probably because people assumed that midday would be uncomfortably hot. But it wasn’t. Perhaps because the park is so shady, and is located on the shore of a big lake, conditions were quite pleasant during my visit. I was in search of Prairie Warblers, American Redstarts, and Yellow Warblers, three fall migrants that haven’t yet been recorded in the county this season. I found three Prairies, all in the “Redstart Tree,” the big oak at the Point. I didn’t see American Redstart or Yellow Warbler. It’s still just a tad on the early side for them.
Otherwise it was the usual breeding birds. A cardinal was building a nest. There were lots of Northern Parulas and Yellow-throated Warblers around. Prothonotary Warblers used to nest in the park as well, but during the past couple of years they’ve been seen there only during spring and fall migration (though they’re still present in small numbers elsewhere along the lakeshore). The Prothonotary doesn’t seem to be doing that well around here. Bob Simons tried putting up nest boxes, but they were ignored.
I flushed a roost of 40-50 Fish Crows from the cypresses along the shoreline of the park, and was impressed by how raggedy their wings looked. Adult birds molt their wing feathers after the nesting season, so if you see a bird with notches or gaps in its wings you can be pretty sure it’s an adult; young birds grow a complete set of wing feathers all at once, and keep them for a year, so any bird exhibiting a perfect set of feathers right now is a youngster.
You know the old fish camp at the north end of Lakeshore Drive, near the crew team parking lot? It’s been shuttered and fenced for something like 25 years, but I noticed today that the buildings and dock have been razed. I assumed that a private residence would be going up there, but the signs on the fence say, “Gainesville Area Rowing.” I stopped the car and got a quick photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/28212924450/in/dateposted-public/
A few migrant shorebirds have shown up at Sweetwater Wetlands Park since my last birding report. John Hintermister saw a Spotted Sandpiper there on the 17th, and Howard Adams saw what was probably the same Spotted plus a Least Sandpiper on the 23rd.
On the 21st Jerry Pruitt noticed two Canada Geese along County Road 346A, about half a mile from Williston Road. Has anybody noticed these before? Were they introduced by the landowner, or could they be wanderers from outside the county? Feral Canada Geese – and these would have to be feral, since they’re in Florida in July – are quite common in Duval, Clay, and Leon Counties, but they’ve never gotten established in Gainesville. A small number of “non-migratory” birds was introduced here in 1971, but they didn’t persist, and I never know whether the geese that occasionally show up here are truly wild migratory birds from up north or just strays from a farm pond in the countryside around Ocala. It’s an arguable point: 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.
A Tree Ordinance Workshop will be held on Tuesday, July 26th at 6:30 p.m. at the Albert “Ray” Massey Westside Recreation Center, 1001 NW 34th Street. Geoff Parks advises, “The outcome of this workshop will discuss how trees are protected and how tree removal is regulated in the City of Gainesville. Interested citizens are welcome to attend.”