Orange-crowned Warbler at Fenway

Orange-Crowned Warbler

 Last week I stopped by the Back Bay Fens and the Victory Gardens for a spot of birding. There had been a massbird post that mentioned a Chat, Orange-crowned warbler, Clay-colored sparrow and White-crowned sparrow just to mention a few. I was enticed and decided that Fenway would make a nice start to the day. I started at the Victory Gardens, initially encountering a large flock of house sparrows, which I carefully combed through hoping for something a little bit more native and fun. But no sparrows other than Song and White-throated Sparrows would turn up that morning. Several Great Blue Herons rose up from the Muddy River heading upstream and giving their loud harsh croaking calls.

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers

I did manage to find two young Yellow-bellied

Sapsuckers chasing each other around the gardens. My first for the state, so they were extra exciting. Slowly some of the warblers seemed to appear, at first just a couple of Blackpolls, then a Yellow-rumped Warbler, and a Common Yellowthroat rounded out the usual suspects for warblers. At this point I ran into Mary Luo and she went in search of the sapsuckers. I carried on and several rows later a little movement caught my eye, so I focused on the bird hiding under the leaves in a raised bed of one of the garden plots. As the bird hopped about my excitement grew, the plain gray face with white eye arcs and the dusky yellow breast with faint gray streaks gave away this bird as the Orange-crowned Warbler! Fortunately it cooperated for just a minute and allowed me to take a couple of pictures and to admire some of her brighter green patches before disappearing into the foliage again.

Orange-Crowned Warbler

At this time I saw Mary Luo again who had gone to find the sapsuckers, I tried to wave her over to see the Orange-crowned too. But by this time the bird had disappeared into the undergrowth, with Chat-like skulking and stealth skills. We kept searching the gardens and found many of the usual residents. I also stopped by the area by the war memorial as that has been a good spot in the past and turned up a couple more Blackpolls. I saw later that the Chat was seen elsewhere in the Fens, not by the Victory Gardens, but the Sapsuckers and Oranger-crowned Warbler already made a great day.