The Alachua County June Challenge is starting to wind down. If you live in Alachua County you might have received the following message from Alachua Audubon's Rex Rowan just before the beginning of June:

"The Sixth Annual June Challenge starts on Monday! Hmm, you say, looking up from your National Enquirer, what's The June Challenge? Glad you asked! Originated by Becky Enneis in 2004, it's a friendly competition, the point of which is to see as many species during the month of June as possible while staying within the boundaries of Alachua County. It's a competition because the desire to win will motivate you to go birding - and you're happy when you're birding, right? - but we don't take the competitive aspect too seriously. It's just that June is a month that most birders spend indoors, and consequently it's pretty much terra incognita as far as bird movements are concerned. No one really knows what's out there."

"If you want to talk about The June Challenge historically, there's always the day when all the Challengers walked out La Chua to see a pair of Fulvous Whistling-Ducks discovered by Mike Manetz the day before and in addition to the Fulvous Whistling-Ducks they found Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, Black-necked Stilts, a Purple Gallinule, a Limpkin, a locally-rare Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, two Savannah Sparrows (the latest ever recorded in Florida), and the piece de resistance, the third Snail Kite ever in Alachua County. Every year we seem to find something interesting - a Gray Kingbird, nesting Gray Catbirds, Brown Pelicans, Roseate Spoonbills, various lingering or stray shorebirds, gulls and terns, and warblers, etc."

And if you don't live in Alachua County  you just might want to start your own June Challenge! Rex Rowan and Mike Manetz are co-authors of A Birdwatcher’s Guide to Alachua County, Florida.