Andy Kratter was planning to begin his annual loon watch – code name Loonacy – on the 15th, but at 8:56 on the morning of the 11th I spotted a flock of seven northbound Common Loons flying over Sparrow Alley, and I think that’s nudged him into an early start. Most mornings between mid-March and mid-April (peaking around April Fools’ Day), you can see loons migrating over Gainesville beginning about an hour after sunrise. Nearly all are Common Loons, but of the seven Red-throated Loons seen in Alachua County over the years, two were spotted by Andy during his spring loon watches. If your yard has a fairly wide view of the western sky, you can do your own loon watch. Set up a lawn chair facing southwest at about 8:15 (Daylight Savings Time) and watch for black-headed, white-bellied birds flying north on pointed wings. For a photo of a flying loon and additional details of Andy’s loon watch, click this blog post from two years ago: http://fieldguide.blogs.gainesville.com/62/loon-migration-over-gainesville/
Louisiana Waterthrushes are early migrants in both spring and fall, passing through mainly in March and July-August. We’ve had only two reports so far this spring: Karl Miller saw one at Barr Hammock’s Levy Lake Loop on the 5th and Mike Manetz saw one at San Felasco’s Moonshine Creek Trail on the 6th.
Another migrant warbler that begins its passage in March is the Prairie Warbler. Karl Miller saw one at the FWC Wildlife Lab on the edge of Paynes Prairie on the 10th. It might have been a wintering bird – a handful stick with us through the cold months every year – but it could just as easily have been a northbound transient. Start watching for them.
Ruby-throated Hummingbirds reliably arrive in this area during the first week of March, but as of March 12th none have been reported to eBird (as I consult my review screen). One did visit Dick and Patty Bartlett’s SE Gainesville feeder on the 4th and as I was putting together this birding report on the morning of the 12th Andy Kratter emailed to report one at his SE Gainesville home.
The spring’s first Yellow-throated Vireos have shown up. Adam Zions found the season’s first at his SW Gainesville home on the 7th, and they’ve since been reported by Deena Mickelson at Mill Creek Preserve on the 8th, by Tom Webber at Longleaf Flatwoods Reserve on the 9th, and by Anne Casella at San Felasco Hammock on the 11th. No Red-eyed Vireos yet, but they should be here any day.
Barbara Shea and I found at least 35 Rusty Blackbirds at Magnolia Parke on the early afternoon of the 12th. Lately the birds have been dividing their time between the wetland at the back of the property and the grassy parking medians in the commercial-medical area. Judging by past years, they won’t be here much longer.
The Vaux’s Swifts roosting at UF’s Dauer Hall stuck around into April last year; this year’s most recent report came on the 9th, when Alex Lamoreaux saw 3 -5 enter the chimneys between 7:34 and 8:00 (adjusted for Daylight Savings Time).
On the 11th I walked Sparrow Alley and the La Chua Trail with two excellent Jacksonville birders, Jeff Graham and Candice Davis. Along Sparrow Alley we were saddened to see Ospreys vainly attempting to nest on the metal power line stanchions. Supposedly nesting platforms will be erected at some point, but I suspect it will be too late for this season. At the end of the main trail we found the water all but vanished. Looking south toward the largest part of Alachua Lake we saw an enormous lawn with a narrow channel of water bordering it to one side, and looking north we saw rapidly-dwindling shallows in which we counted over a hundred shorebirds, including Least Sandpipers, Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitchers, and two Dunlins. Other sightings of interest included the male Vermilion Flycatcher, pretty close to full adult plumage, and a flock of 12 American Pipits, rather late for this species. What we didn’t see was equally remarkable: no Sandhill Cranes at all, no Pied-billed Grebes, few ducks of any sort, few American Coots or Common Gallinules, few Wilson’s Snipe, few sparrows of any sort.
I mentioned in my last birding report that Paynes Prairie’s Whooping-Crane-in-residence had apparently been photographed on the Prairie as far back as 2013 and 2014. I sent the photos to FWC’s Tim Dellinger, who confirmed that it was the same bird and added, “I first tracked 1644 to Paynes Prairie in April 2009. She was there in 2010, 2011, and 2012 too.” I asked if she was one of the pair who hatched out (but could not raise) a pair of chicks in May 2010, and he replied, “No, she has never bred to our knowledge. Too few birds, and a very small number of those are males.” So she’s been visiting Paynes Prairie for eight of her eleven years. And she has a name of sorts: 1644. Did you see that she made the front page of the Gainesville Sun on the 11th? http://www.gainesville.com/news/20170310/whooping-crane-makes-surprise-appearance (Note that three of the four photos are by Gainesville birder Frank Goodwin.)
I ran into Kelly MacPherson of the county’s Environmental Protection Department at Publix the other day. She told me that Barr Hammock is scheduled to open in April. I’m not referring to the Levy Loop Trail, which opened in February 2013, but to the extensive forest trails immediately to the south, between Levy Lake and Ledwith Lake.
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is asking the public to help them census the plants and animals in their Wildlife Management Areas. Watermelon Pond will be one of their more important ones. You take your smartphone or camera along with you, photograph what plants and animals you can – or in the case of birds make a sound recording – and submit the results here: http://floridanaturetrackers.com/florida-nature-trackers/projects/