For the fifth fall in a row we’ve got Alder Flycatcher in Alachua County. Matt O’Sullivan first noted the bird along Sparrow Alley on the 1st and Adam Zions saw it again on the 3rd, but in both cases it was silent. On the 7th Mike Manetz actually heard it giving an identifying pip! All of our local Alder sightings seem to have occurred in generally open landscapes with wooded or shrubby edges – the Cones Dike Trail, the Levy Lake Loop, and Sparrow Alley. Mike found the bird by walking out Sparrow Alley past the powerlines and when he got to a big dip in the trail he cut to his right through the treeline into the old police-horse pasture. There, at the edge of an “island” of large oaks, he found the bird among some Hercules-Club (small tree with a spiny trunk, reference photos here).
The days after Hurricane Hermine’s passage brought numerous migrant warblers. The fall’s first Ceruleans were found on the 5th, one at Bolen Bluff by Mitch Walters (excellent photo here) and one by by Gina Kent at her SE Gainesville home. Several species were more abundant than usual. On the 4th Scott Burgard found 6-10 Prothonotary Warblers in a single feeding flock along the Bolen Bluff Trail. On the 5th Bob Holt noted several Swainson’s Thrushes in the beautyberry bushes in his NW Gainesville yard, by two days an early record for the county. Perhaps most impressive was the abundance of Kentucky Warblers. Only four were reported to eBird during the entire month of August, but from September 2-5 at least sixteen were seen; Adam Zions found more than a third of those, six of them, along San Felasco’s Creek Sink Trail on the 4th. On the same walk Adam tallied 8 Veeries, the first of the fall. (Veeries are always the earliest thrush in fall migration, with pretty big flights during the first week of September; the county’s early record is August 29th.)
Since we’re on the subject of warblers, Mike Manetz and I walked the nature trail at Poe Springs Park on the 8th. We found 11 species of warblers, the best of which were a Swainson’s, a very pretty adult-female Cerulean, and four Kentuckys.
Some raptors are on the move too. There were two Peregrine Falcon sightings on the day after Hurricane Hermine’s passage, one by Adam Zions and Ken Spilios along the La Chua Trail and one by Bryan Tarbox in downtown Gainesville. These were the earliest Peregrines ever recorded in Alachua County by 13 days. An early Northern Harrier was spotted by Michael Brock in the big field adjoining the parking area at San Felasco Progress Center on August 23rd, another was seen by Adam Zions at La Chua on the 3rd, and there have been a couple of sightings since then.
Speaking of seasonal firsts, Greg Hart of Alachua saw an adult male Rufous Hummingbird at his feeder on the 2nd, and his old Air Force buddy Ron Robinson saw two Baltimore Orioles in his yard west of Gainesville on the 5th.
On the other hand there are seasonal lasts. The last (so far) Mississippi Kites were seen on the 2nd, one at La Chua by Caroline Poli and Jessica Hightower, and one at Turkey Creek by Jennifer Donsky. Adam Zions saw two Swallow-tailed Kites at La Chua on the 3rd, and Andy Kratter, who lives only a mile or two to the north, saw two on the same day. If you’d like to see some of the post-breeding and migratory routes of individual Swallow-tailed Kites, check out the “Swallow-tailed Kite Migration” blog at the Avian Research and Conservation web site: http://www.swallow-tailedkites.org/
Alachua Audubon’s field trip season begins this week with a walk at Poe Springs County Park on Saturday the 10th. And our Wednesday Wetland Walks at Sweetwater Wetlands Park kicked off on the 7th (my apologies to Debbie Segal for not getting the word out in time), and will be held every Wednesday morning through next May. You can see the field trip schedule here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/classes-field-trips/