Jonathan Colburn emailed at 12:35 to report that a retention pond behind the new Dick’s Sporting Goods store in Butler Plaza was “popping” with wading birds. I had an errand to run this afternoon, so I drove by to check it out and I found eleven species of shorebirds present:
Black-necked Stilt 2
Killdeer 17
Stilt Sandpiper 1
Least Sandpiper 2
Pectoral Sandpiper 3
Semipalmated Sandpiper 1
Western Sandpiper 1
Spotted Sandpiper 2
Solitary Sandpiper 3
Greater Yellowlegs 1
Lesser Yellowlegs 3
I commandeered my daughter’s smartphone and, with her help, got bad photos of a couple of the more surprising species. Here’s the Western (with a Least over on the right): https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/28470156141/in/dateposted-public/
And here’s the Stilt Sandpiper, a fantastic-looking bird in full breeding plumage: https://www.flickr.com/photos/74215662@N04/28515771396/in/dateposted-public/
Google Maps hasn’t yet caught up with the pace of change in SW Gainesville, but if you take SW 20th Avenue (from the east) or SW 24th Avenue (from the west), you’ll get to SW 43rd Street, at the edge of Forest Park, where the fire station is. Go south on 43rd. The road will curve left as you reach the new Walmart. Follow the road as it curves, and you’ll see Dick’s coming up on your left. Pull into the parking lot at your first opportunity, keeping to the left side of the building, and park near the back. The retention pond is partly behind Dick’s and partly to the left of it.
We’re going to have to keep an eye on this place during the next month or so.
In other migrant news, Teresa Halback saw the fall’s first American Redstart along the wooded driveway of her place near Evinston on July 23rd.
Cathy Bester, a project assistant at the museum, spotted three flamingos flying between Snake Key and Atsena Otie on Sunday the 24th. She reported them to Andy Kratter, who asked her if they might have been spoonbills. She replied, “I had a great view of them as they flew overhead. They did not have the spoonbill beak at all, they were quite graceful. I have seen lots of spoonbills over the past 15 years that I have lived in Florida.” There’s only one previous record of flamingo at Cedar Key, a storm-blown bird that was present for about a week in September-October 2000.
Thanks to Trina Anderson, the Alachua Audubon field trip schedule is going up on the web site: https://alachuaaudubon.org/classes-field-trips/