Yellow-headed Blackbird, Dickcissel, Bronzed Cowbird, Dunlin

Tracking wild birds in their migrations and other movements will be the topic of Caroline Poli’s talk at the Alachua Audubon program meeting this Thursday, November 10th: “We’ll follow Atlantic Puffins in Maine, Brown Pelicans along the Atlantic coast, Masked and Red-footed Boobies in Mexico, and critically endangered Snail Kites in Florida, to find out how tracking animals can fill critical information gaps and guide conservation action.” Join us in the meeting room at the Millhopper Branch Library, 3145 NW 43rd Street. The social half-hour will begin at 6:30, the talk at 7:00. Additional details here.

Early this afternoon Peter Polshek got a text from Eric Anderson and Wendy Wilbur relating the discovery of a Yellow-headed Blackbird on the University of Florida campus. It was seen in the same area where the Vermilion Flycatcher was discovered on October 20th, in the orchard along IFAS Research Drive south of Hull Road. That’s all I know at this point. Parking-wise, Sunday is a good day to go looking for it.

Jonathan Mays had his second Dickcissel of the fall at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 4th, “near the concrete path in the sluiceway dividing cells 1 and 2.”

The Alachua Audubon field trip to the Hague Dairy on the 5th found a Bronzed Cowbird, though only a few participants got to see it before it disappeared; Michael Brock relocated it on the 6th. This is probably the same bird that Mike Manetz found there on October 22nd. To me the eye didn’t seem very noticeably red except in certain lights, which was something that Mike also noted.

John Hintermister walked out La Chua on the 31st and called to tell me that it was “hot.” He saw 74 species of birds, including 757 Blue-winged Teal, 83 Mottled Ducks, a Gadwall, an American Wigeon, a drake Mallard, 4 Roseate Spoonbills, a Whooping Crane, and nine species of shorebirds including 107 Long-billed Dowitchers, 4 Dunlin, 3 Stilt Sandpipers, and 2 Pectoral Sandpipers. The Dunlin, which are rare in Alachua County (23 occurrences), had been there since October 29th – when Matt Bruce photographed six – and were still there as of November 5th, when John Martin counted 12.

On the 31st Linda Hensley saw a Scarlet Tanager and a Summer Tanager in her NW Gainesville yard. According to eBird, neither had been seen in the county since the 19th, and neither has been seen since, so those were probably the last of the fall migrants. It will be interesting to see how the number of wintering Summer Tanagers compares with last year, when we had more than 20 sighted during the season.

Here’s a list of the area Christmas Bird Counts. Most of them need help, so participate if you can:

December 15 (Thursday) – Melrose  Joyce King sjoyceking@comcast.net
December 15 (Thursday) – Lake City  Valerie Thomas v.thomas57@gmail.com
December 15 (Thursday) – Emeralda/Sunnyhill  Barb Gay stkite52@gmail.com
December 18 (Sunday) – Gainesville  Andy Kratter kratter@flmnh.ufl.edu
December 19 (Monday) – West Marion County  Judy Greenburg judymg@gmail.com
December 20 (Tuesday) – Ichetucknee/Santa Fe/O’Leno  Ginger Morgan Ginger.Morgan@myfwc.com
December 20 (Tuesday) – St. Augustine  Diane Reed dreedster@aol.com
December 26 (Monday) – Jacksonville  Anne Turner sungrebe86@yahoo.com
December 30 (Friday) – Cedar Key  Ron Christen 850-567-0490

Is anyone interested in some old copies of Birding magazine from the 1980s? Howard Adams is giving them away. If you want them, let me know.