’23 Fall Warbler Migration

Jeremy6 Comments

Since I’m spending the last two weeks of October in Hawaii, the fall warbler migration is over for me. It turned out to be a very good one, with it starting earlier than normal for me. I had huge numbers of birds beginning very early in August (8/10) through the end of the month. My guess is it had something to do with the wildfires in Canada. I was pretty busy in August, so I had limited chances to get out. Because of this, I missed out on some fall birds, including my favorite, the Canada Warbler. I spent all of my time at Warnimont, Grant, Sheridan and Bender Parks this fall. I ended up with 25 species of warblers this fall. September started off very good for warblers, but then we got some terrible weather patterns for the next few weeks and had one major migration day after that, which I wasn’t available for. I was able get the two late passerines, Pine and Orange-crowned Warblers, just before I left. I would have been upset if I didn’t see either of those. It will be a long, cold winter waiting for the colorful little birds to return. Hopefully the owls cooperate in the cold months! The photos below are from early August through the middle of October, when I left. Fall warblers have so many variations of plumages. I try to capture as many as possible to show what you might see when out. The individual photos are labeled male, female or hatch year, if you click on them. Enjoy!

American Redstart

Bay-breasted Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Connecticut Warbler

Golden-winged Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Mourning Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Northern Parula

Northern Waterthrush

Orange-crowned Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler (gray-headed sub-species)

Palm Warbler (western)

Pine Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

’23 Spring Warbler Migration

Jeremy16 Comments

Despite having terrible weather conditions in May, to produce huge numbers of warblers, I still ended up with 36 warbler species. I just didn’t have very many big days, like I’m used to. We were stuck with E, NE or N winds for the majority of the warbler migration, thanks to our “great” Lake Michigan! Of the 36 warblers, 35 of them were in Milwaukee County. The lone one outside of Milwaukee County, was a Painted Redstart that showed up in Sauk County. I missed one, a Black-throated Gray Warbler that made an appearance at Wind Point Lighthouse in Racine, and only because I was busy that day. Most of the county parks were just average at best. Warnimont Park was producing rather solid numbers most days, like usual and is still my favorite spring warbler park. One little gem, that was basically the county hotspot, was Shorewood Nature Preserve. This tiny little park, nestled between a couple mansions in Shorewood, hosted some great birds including, Worm-eating Warbler, Cerulean Warbler, multiple Yellow-throated Warblers, Prairie Warbler, multiple Hooded Warblers, and a Louisiana Waterthrush. All of those warblers are great for the county. Lake Park hosted a couple of Connecticut Warblers, like it usually does. Warnimont Park also a had several, however viewing is better a Lake Park for them. This is a very large gallery of photos, but warblers are my favorite and I spend a lot of time with them in the spring. As always, I try for male and female, along with first spring birds, to show the varying plumages between them. It’s tough to get them all though. All of the photos below are from Milwaukee County, with the exception being the Painted Redstart. Enjoy!

American Redstart

Bay-breasted Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

Blackburnian Warbler

Blackpoll Warbler

Blue-winged Warbler

Canada Warbler

Cape May Warbler

Cerulean Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Connecticut Warbler

Golden-winged Warbler

Hooded Warbler

Kentucky Warbler

Louisiana Waterthrush

Magnolia Warbler

Mourning Warbler

Nashville Warbler

Northern Parula

Northern Waterthrush

Orange-crowned Warbler

Ovenbird

Painted Redstart

Palm Warbler

Pine Warbler

Prairie Warbler

Prothonotary Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler

Worm-eating Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Yellow-throated Warbler

Sorry, no photos of these this spring, but I did see and hear them twice.

Black-throated Gray Warbler and more… Lake Park 5/19

Jeremy2 Comments

I had just got to Grant Park to look a Dunlin, when I received a text about a Black-throated Gray Warbler at Lake Park. I responded, “come on??? 2 years in row!!!” So I left Grant and headed to Lake Park. It seemed that a bunch of us had arrived just about the same time. We started walking the area to try and relocate it. After a little while, I walked away from everyone to the far west end of the Locust ravine. I had seen several birds fly down that direction, and wanted to check it out. Sure enough, there it was! I yelled, “got it!!!” and everyone was able to get on it. I had awesome, eye level looks at it right away. The bird appears to be a first year female. She has a yellow spot on the left side and on the right side it’s just starting to come in, only a few tufts of yellow. It looks funny seeing it half and half. The black on throat is starting to come in as well, but still fairly white. She hung in the area for about 30 minutes and then disappeared. She was then relocated about 30 minutes after that, just south of the iron bridge, by the cul-de-sac. In that location, she spent the rest of the day. I was there until sunset, and had seen her a few minutes prior to that. Hopefully she will stick around for more people to see it. Wow, consecutive springs in Milwaukee for this warbler! In addition to this wonderful bird, the park was quite birdy! I ended up with 88 species and 25 warblers. Not too bad considering it was suppose to rain all day, and of course it never did! Pictures below are from the day. Enjoy!

The others…

Black-throated Blue Warbler and more… at Whitnall Park

Jeremy2 Comments

The Black-throated Blue Warbler that has been at Whitnall Park for the last week, finally decided to put on a show in front of several people! He was singing away in the white flowering tree just east of the bridge. Singing and eating, dropping all the way down to the water, before continuing to the other side. He went in the downed tree overhanging the creek. He even took a little break, right in front of everyone, closing his eyes for a minute or so. After the short break, he continued singing and up creek he went. Up until then, he had been relatively elusive. Perfect timing to enjoy a beautiful bird! He was still being seen as of today (5/10).