Not long ago I predicted that Newnans Lake would be an excellent shorebird spot if the drought continued. Two days later – of course – we had heavy rain. I assumed that the shorebirds had been flooded out, but I was wrong. Matt Bruce, who originally discovered the shorebirds on the 1st, went back on the 14th and kayaked all the way around the lake. He found six shorebird species in the same place he saw them before, near the Prairie Creek inlet. They included 272 Long-billed Dowitchers, 107 Lesser Yellowlegs, 82 Least Sandpipers, 5 Black-necked Stilts, 2 Solitary Sandpipers, and 1 Greater Yellowlegs. His other sightings included two locally-rare Brown Pelicans, 176 American White Pelicans, and 11 Prothonotary Warblers. You can view his eBird checklist, with a lot of nice photos, here. He writes, “I was pleased to see that the water level was approximately the same as it was the last time I went out, despite last week’s rains. If you decide to take a kayak out, the best birding bang for your paddling buck would be to put in at Powers Park and head straight for the mouth of Prairie Creek. The largest concentration of shorebirds is in this area. You should see several Prothonotary Warblers if you go in the morning. Also, the American White Pelicans frequent this area. If you paddle a little farther north, along the eastern shore of the lake, you will see smaller concentrations of shorebirds and likely some Bonaparte’s Gulls – one yesterday was in full breeding plumage. The Brown Pelicans, however, were all the way on the far north end of the lake.”
The Swainson’s Warbler at Loblolly was last reported to eBird on the 13th. Geoff Parks saw it at 10:30 in the morning, “right along the east side of the boardwalk, maybe 75 meters north of the marked spot where others have seen it.” But when Dean Ewing went looking for it at 6 p.m., “it was right at the marked spot on the boardwalk but 20 feet off feeding behind a small palmetto. Found by listening for the rustling sound as it turned over leaves. It trembled and shook its body as it fed, a behavior that must aid it in stirring up insects” (this trembling, noted by several birders, is characteristic of the species, and Cornell’s Birds of North America came to the same conclusion as Dean: “Birds also exhibit ‘pattering’ or rapid vibration of the feet when foraging, which may help flush prey items, and contributes to the impression of an erratic gait”). I don’t know if anyone has been looking for this bird since then. If it moved on after the 13th, its six days’ visit makes it the second-longest-staying Swainson’s in the county’s history. Only one stayed longer, a bird that Reed Noss found singing on territory at San Felasco Hammock on June 10, June 13, and June 18, 1986 (no followup on this bird was ever reported). Did I ever link to Glenn Price’s photo of the bird singing in response to a tape on April 9th? Shame on me. Here it is.
Elizabeth Martin reported a Bay-breasted Warbler near the first trail split (if you go right at the kiosk) at San Felasco Hammock’s Blue/Yellow Trail on the 8th. It’s improbable for three reasons: (1.) it’s the only report from Florida so far this year, (2.) it’s rare for Alachua County in spring (only two previous records, both in late April), and (3.) it’s six days prior to the earliest ever recorded in Florida according to Stevenson and Anderson’s The Birdlife of Florida (published in 1994). On the other hand, her description was spot on: “Saw a bird with an extensive amount of cinnamon/rusty color on throat and flanks of breast. The front part of the face that was seen was all black (I could only see the underside of the bird and just a little of the side to see the front of the face). There was no yellow color seen on the face of this bird from the angle I viewed it. The rest of breast and belly appeared light cream/white in color, and the edges of the wings had some white feathers that appeared could be the beginning of wing bars amidst the dark color of the wing.” You have to weigh the improbabilities against the actual evidence. I can’t think of anything else fitting that description. Can you? If you can, please let me know!
Painted Buntings are coming through. Adam Kent and I walked the East Trail at Newnans Lake State Forest on the 15th and found a male perched in a pine tree. That evening Adam was sitting on his porch with wife Gina and Chris Burney and they spotted Adam’s second male Painted Bunting of the day. Bubba Scales had a male in his yard on the 7th, 8th, and 9th, Trina Anderson found a male at Chapmans Pond on the 12th, and Trina and Barbara Shea reported a female at Sweetwater Wetlands Park on the 14th.
Other migrants:
The first Worm-eating Warbler of the spring was seen by Keith Collingwood in his Melrose yard on the 3rd. Since then additional birds have been reported regularly, at ten additional sites.
The summer’s first Yellow-billed Cuckoo was calling at John Hintermister’s place north of Gainesville on the 4th and 5th. Only three additional birds have been seen since then.
Our first Black-throated Blue, not counting the one that wintered at Bubba and Ingrid Scales’s place (still there on April 12th), was reported by Lloyd Davis at San Felasco Hammock on the 8th. No more were seen until this morning, when single birds were reported from two other sites.
On the 8th Laura Gaudette photographed a Canada Goose on Newnans Lake. In a birding report last July I noted that “of the 13 more-or-less credible sightings in Alachua County since 2000, seven took place between March 19th and April 14th, which suggests a spring migratory movement.” This makes eight out of 14.
Felicia Lee reports that this morning’s Alachua Audubon field trip along the La Chua Trail saw the season’s first Bobolink, a male “flying across the trail near the observation platform.” Just one day shy of the early record for Alachua County.
No Cape Mays or Blackpolls yet. But you should keep an eye out, because last year’s spring migration peaked between April 15th and April 23rd.