’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.

Nashville, Tennessee & Orange-crowned Warblers in Spring ’22

Jeremy2 Comments

Every spring, I see a lot of these warblers, both male and female. All three have all been in the Milwaukee area since 4/25, when we had favorable SW winds over the weekend. They showed in good numbers that early too. 4/26 was a big day for these three as warblers as well and I had 8 Nashville, 13 Tennessee and 45 Orange-crowned, including 2 of the gray-headed sub-species. These three continued to have a strong presence all the way through the spring migration and on 5/11, I had 47 Nashville, 31 Tennessee and 14 Orange-crowned. This was several days early for the huge Tennessee push and a week late for big numbers of Orange-crowned. Never a good sign to have that many Tennessee Warblers that early, because they represent the back end of migration. The photos below have been taken in the Milwaukee area since 4/25. Enjoy!

Nashville Warbler

Tennessee Warbler

Orange-crowned Warbler

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

Umm… Some Privacy Please???

Jeremy8 Comments

I was also fairly lucky with some warblers bathing, right in front of me. Lake Park and Whitnall Park are usually very good places to view this behavior. Whitnall Park has a creek that runs through it and is accessible in many areas. Lake Park has ravines and most of the time a small stream of water running through them. The key to finding where they bathe, is finding protection near the water. By this, I mean they want to come down into a tree overhanging or next to the water, a small bush near it or raspberry vines that are thicker for examples. This way they feel protected at a vulnerable moment and have a hiding spot should there be any danger. In my experience, when one comes down, be prepared because more are coming and coming fast! It happens so quickly and poof, they’re gone! I’ve had up to 6 different warblers in one little pool before. A lot of times I just happen to stumble upon them bathing. However, if you have more patience you can choose to sit and wait, but it may take a couple hours before you get any action. The photos below have been taken the few weeks in the Milwaukee area. Enjoy!

Who’s taking my picture???

Jeremy18 Comments

This spring so many warblers have looked directly at me while photographing them. I will get them like that occasionally, but not like this year. It has been all of the warbler species too, not just a few of them. I’m not sure if they see the huge front element on my lens, that reflects back at them or if they hear the camera shutter clicking 10 frames per second. Either way I’ve found it to be quite funny how the photos turn out. Something different than seeing the normal profile picture. Photos below are from the last few weeks in the Milwaukee area. Enjoy!

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 Gray Warbler in Milwaukee County 5/5/20

Jeremy3 Comments

A beautiful male Black-throated Gray Warbler has been seen the last couple days along the Menomonee River Parkway, although it hadn’t been publicly reported until today. As soon as I saw the email come through, I went straight there. After the short ride over, I started searching for it. Several minutes later I was joined by many and we continued to look. He was finally found, along the western bank of the river! There was also a nice variety of warblers hanging with it, including 1 Tennessee, 3 Orange-crowned, 1 Black-and-white, 1 Palm and 1 Yellow Warbler. What a Stunning bird, and a life bird for me! Images below are from today. Enjoy!