Several lucky birders kicked off 2017 with the sight of a Peregrine Falcon stooping on shorebirds along the La Chua Trail on New Year’s Day. Marvin Smith of Valdosta got this spectacular photo.
On the 7th Ryan Terrill found a sandpiper along La Chua that may have been a Dunlin … or it may have been Alachua County’s first-ever Curlew Sandpiper. To Ryan the bird seemed taller and grayer than a Dunlin, with a more slender bill. He got several photos, but while he was trying to get another the bird flew away and he was unable to catch a glimpse of the diagnostic white rump. He went back later in the day in an effort to relocate it and nail down the ID, but he couldn’t find it. He did see a real Dunlin from the observation platform, but the earlier bird displayed some retained juvenile wing coverts that the Dunlin lacked. Here’s a link to Ryan’s checklist, with his photos (it’s under “Calidris sp.”): http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist/S33508595 If you want to look for it yourself, go out the La Chua Trail past the hairpin turn; beyond that point the area on your right is flooded, and that’s where it was, fairly close to the last big bend before the observation platform. Let’s cross our fingers!
On the morning of the 3rd Mike Manetz and I walked out the La Chua Trail with Matt O’Sullivan, who was a day away from leaving for a new career and a new life in Dallas. We found a cluster of sparrows in the weeds below the boardwalk – White-crowned, Vesper, Savannah, Swamp, Song, Grasshopper, and Lincoln’s Sparrows … and a Dickcissel, a bird that has been frequenting the area since at least December 10th, when it was discovered by Adam Zions. It was a county and state life bird for Matt, and a fitting send-off for him.
We’re going to miss Matt around here. No one was better at finding birds. He found the Black Scoters at Newnans Lake that most of us have on our county life lists. I remember sitting in Mike Manetz’s living room compiling the fall migration count, and getting a call from Matt informing us that he was watching a Cerulean Warbler chase a Canada Warbler at Palm Point. I remember sneaking out to Sweetwater Wetlands Park one August day before it opened – wading across a ditch of thigh-deep water – to look for shorebirds, and Matt saying again and again that he’d really like to see a Buff-breasted Sandpiper, while again and again I reminded him that our few Buff-breasted Sandpiper records all came from September, not August – and then (of course) we found a Buff-breasted Sandpiper. If you want to read that story in a little more detail (and illustrated with Matt’s photos), go here: https://alachuaaudubon.org/2014/08/10/buff-breasted-sandpiper-at-paynes-prairie/ Matt, thanks for all the birds, and good luck. You’re going to enjoy Texas.
I heard a cardinal and titmouse singing in my neighborhood on the morning of the 28th, a chickadee on the morning of the 2nd.
A Rose-breasted Grosbeak has been visiting a feeder in NW Gainesville since the 26th. This is, I think, the county’s seventh winter record.
Becky Enneis and Bob Carroll set themselves an interesting challenge in 2016. At the end of every week each of them would choose their favorite photo from those taken during the week. They couldn’t repeat the species during the rest of the year, or change the photo once they had made their decisions at the end of each week. Becky and Bob have each compiled their “52 Birds” photos on Flickr: here’s Becky’s and here’s Bob’s.
Cedar Key Audubon Society is sponsoring a tour of Cuba in May: http://www.cedarkeysaudubon.org/uploads/7/6/0/3/76037653/cuba_trip_cedar_key_audubon_copy.pdf
The latest edition of The Crane, the Alachua Audubon Society newsletter, is online. Included are Mike Manetz’s summary of the late fall, results of three area Christmas Counts (Gainesville, Melrose, Ichetucknee/Santa Fe/O’Leno), descriptions of all the field trips scheduled for January and February, and much, much more: https://alachuaaudubon.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Crane-Jan-Feb-2017-1.pdf