Well, it’s fall. I mean, really fall. The kind with birds in it. On the 30th Ron Robinson had two Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at his feeder west of Gainesville and Andy Kratter heard two more flying over his SE Gainesville home. Andy also estimated 300 calling Swainson’s Thrushes flying over before dawn. Often – for reasons that aren’t clear to anyone – hearing lots of birds flying over before sunrise doesn’t translate to birds in the woods after sunrise. But this time it did. The same morning Andy heard all the Swainson’s, Chris Burney tallied 16 of them along the Prairie Creek Preserve’s Lodge Trail (“probably more – seen and calling in almost every location”). He also had two Gray-cheeked Thrushes, a Scarlet Tanager, and 15 species of warblers including 4 Blackburnians, 5 Chestnut-sideds, 4 Black-throated Blues, and 10 American Redstarts.
You may be able to see a few of these birds yourself during Alachua Audubon’s two field trips this weekend, one with Adam Kent at San Felasco Hammock’s Progress Center on Saturday and one with Barbara Shea at Powers Park and Palm Point on Sunday. Meeting times and places are here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/classes-field-trips/
Some winter birds are moving in. A couple of early Ruby-crowned Kinglets were reported: on the 20th Bryan Tarbox saw one along the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail “half-way between Boulware Springs Park & La Chua,” and on the 21st Adam Zions saw one at Bell Ridge Longleaf Wildlife and Environmental Area in eastern Gilchrist County. These were the first two Ruby-crowned Kinglets in Florida this fall. Less surprisingly, Palm Warblers are increasing. A total of four were spotted on migration count, one in each of four different locations. Tom Tompkins noted four at the airport on the 21st, and they’ve been reported to eBird pretty much daily since then. Gray Catbirds are also getting more common. The first was seen on the 20th, and they’ve been reported every day since. Usually their numbers peak somewhere around October 10th, but Jennifer Donsky has already reported 18 on a single walk, along the La Chua Trail on the 30th.
(By the way, returning to Adam Zions’s Ruby-crowned report, Bell Ridge Longleaf WEA is a 720-acre property northwest of Newberry, owned and managed by Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Described as “one of the highest quality longleaf pine sandhill forest tracts in Florida,” it’s near the intersection of State Road 47 and County Road 232 in eastern Gilchrist County. An overview can be seen here and a trail map here. If you’d like to learn more about the ecology of the place, you can read the FWC’s management plan.)
Remember this weekend’s field trips. And the weekly Wednesday Wetlands Walks at Sweetwater Wetlands Park, beginning at 8:30 every Wednesday morning.