On the afternoon of the 12th a visiting Massachusetts birder named Nathan Dubrow photographed a singing male Painted Bunting at the beginning of the La Chua Trail, “on the right side of the sidewalk as you walk out towards the Prairie just before the stable building.” Several birders combed the area around the stable first thing this morning, but without success. Painted Buntings nest along the Atlantic coastal strip from Brevard County northward, so they shouldn’t be in Alachua County right now. However there are three old summer records. A male was seen at Lake Alice on 19 July 1972, a pair was at Ron Robinson’s place in Alachua on 14-15 June 1987, and of two singing males seen along Wacahoota Road in mid-May 1997 one was seen again on 5 July. Only one of those birds was present for an extended period of time, so this may have been a one-day wonder. Or it may not….
Mike Manetz saw a Whooping Crane from the observation tower at the Paynes Prairie Visitor Center on the morning of the 13th.
On the evening of the 12th several birders gathered on the boardwalk between Alachua Sink and Little Alachua Sink in hope of seeing Great Horned Owls and Barn Owls. One Great Horned was perched out in the open when we got there, but the rest of the action happened after 8:30. One Barn Owl flew out at 8:32, and a second Great Horned and a second Barn Owl flew out at 8:40. When I left, two Great Horneds were perched in that solitary pine near the beginning of Sparrow Alley and a third was visible and calling in the big oak beside the stable.
On the morning of the 13th Conrad Burkholder saw two Eastern Kingbirds and a male Orchard Oriole along Cellon Creek Boulevard. He also heard a Northern Bobwhite calling, though he didn’t see it.