’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.

Canada, Hooded & Wilson’s Warblers Spring ’22

Jeremy2 Comments

Canada Warbler is my favorite! I love the color combination and their beautiful song. This was an excellent spring for them as well. My big day for them was on 5/15, when I saw 12 at Warnimont. They can be found just about anywhere, I usually see them in the low, thicker shrubs. Their song is a loud rapid warble of notes. Canada Warblers also linger late to the end of May. The Hooded Warbler is a very striking bird when seeing in the field. The black that surrounds the males face is very bold and unmistakable! Unfortunately, they aren’t very common, however there seems to be a decent amount that pass through Milwaukee County each spring. Warnimont Park in particular, gets one every year behind the archery range, which I’m willing to bet is the same one each year. This year, he showed up very early, 4/25 along with a bunch of other warblers that day, in our fallout at that park. He continued there for the next two days and was even joined by another as well. They have a very pretty song as well that is a clear weeta-weeta-weet-tee-o. On 5/1, I had a very cooperative female at Whitnall Park. She was along a creek in the middle of the park. Wilson’s Warblers are usually a little later, like the Canada and stay longer. There were lots of them this spring, as usual with 9 being seen on 5/11. 5/15 was also a great day with 8. Both of those days were at Warnimont Park. Photos below are from the last month in Milwaukee County. Enjoy!

Canada Warbler

Hooded Warbler

Wilson’s Warbler

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…