|
Black-and-white Warbler |
This was quite the morning. I ate my breakfast on the back
steps and enjoyed the morning bird song chorus. So far this spring, I've
only had palm warblers and yellow-rumps, so imagine my surprise when I
heard
northern parulas and
black-and-white warblers singing up a storm
in the backyard and neighborhood (The black-and-white picture is here
from Newton). All of last spring I only had 3 warbler species total for
the yard, so finding 2 in one morning was quite a treat. Both of these
were also firsts for the yard. I continued to hear parulas and black-and-whites all the way into Newton Center. Its hard to imagine how many warblers this must have been.
|
American Redstart |
Then I
very briefly stopped at Riverway, off of the T in Boston, and was immediately
assaulted by warbler song.
Black-throated green and black-and-white
warblers popped up first and I just enjoyed them as I left my camera at
home. But as I started finding more and more warblers,
yellows and
common yellowthroats, I started wanting to take pictures so I pulled out
my phone to line them up through my binoculars (at least you can tell which warbler is which). I kept hearing songs
that sounded like parulas and
black-throated blues (I love the color of
the BT-Blue) so i thought I was just confused until I realized
|
Black-throated Blue Warbler |
that they
were both present. As I kept scanning the trees I also turned up a
veery, an
American redstart and an
ovenbird! I regularly hear ovenbirds
in the spring, but this was only my second time seeing one. The trees
were full of our little gems of wood warblers and there were even some
yellow-rumps chasing each other around to round out the morning with 9
warbler species! There were a few warbler-like songs that I didn't hear
well or recognize, so maybe there were a few more that I missed, but it
was still one of my best warbler days so far. That doesn't even include
the joy of seeing the veery and finding a singing Baltimore oriole. Of
course there were many more of the usual suspects too.
|
Veery |
Then
I later read a Massbird
email from Marshall Iliff indicating that there
was a major coastal fallout of migrants today, making it probably one
of the best birding days of the spring. I hope some of these will stick
around for the weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment