Watching Warblers Spring 2010

Watching Warblers Spring 2010

It’s latish May, and the warbler migration is just about over. Warblers that nest locally are at work now. Warblers that migrate northward are already on their way, and some have likely reached their destination.

I had “racked up” 23 warbler species at Magee Marsh earlier in the month, and others here in the Delaware Valley. I was anxious to fill in some blanks for this year.

2010 has been a peculiar warbler year here; the migration in April was exceptionally slow. Warbler lovers began to get discouraged. “There aren’t many birds around this year,” was a familiar lament.

Things picked up in May. And last weekend, on Sunday May 16, I had one of my best warbler watching days ever (discounting, of course, birds seen on trips to High Island, TX and Magee Marsh, OH.)

About Sunday: My friend Martin and I drove to Brandywine Creek State Park, DE to look for warblers. It’s about an hour from home. It was a gorgeous spring morning. We got there when the park opened, 8:00 AM, and were greeted right away with the unmistakable “song” of the Yellow-breasted Chat. It took us a while to locate the bird. We knew, from the sound, that it was high in a tree, several layers back. And then the bird took off, circling around and making its loud flight call. We were able to get a good look at it when it settled down on a branch. Bingo! This was a bird I hadn’t yet seen in 2010.

Our next warbler was a tough one to identify. For one thing, it was pretty well hidden by leaves, and its field marks were difficult to see. Martin and I identified it tentatively as a Bay-breasted Warbler, and confirmed it later after checking several field guides. We hadn’t even gotten started down the trails, and we’d seen two good birds.

As we made our way toward the river, we found Wilson’s and Canada Warblers, both new 2010 birds for me, and also the following: Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia (many of these), Black-throated Blue, Blackburnian, and Black-and-white Warblers, as well as Northern Parula, American Redstart, Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush, and Common Yellowthroat.

Real life commitments caused us to leave before noon, and we were not able to get to the prairie section of the park where we would most likely have seen Prairie and Blue-winged Warblers.

It was a wonderful day. And I wound up with a total of 31 warbler species for spring 2010. A personal best.