Mount Peter was fogged in this morning, so I took the opportunity to bird a couple of nearby spots before the fog cleared out. My first stop was Cascade Lake, which was very birdy. The most numerous bird was definitely Ruby-crowned Kinglet; I had over a dozen easily. Among the kinglets I had a couple of warblers. One was a Black-throated Green, but the other I haven’t been able to ID. I’ve posted a couple of shots of the bird – if any one has any ideas, please comment. I was surprised to also do well with raptors while there; I had an Osprey, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, and a Cooper’s Hawk.
Next, I went to Wickham Lake, where Yellow-rumped Warblers were the bird of the day; they were seemingly everywhere. Other birds of note included a Pied-billed Grebe and my FOS Ruddy Ducks and Gadwall.
I headed back up to Mt. Pete just before noon. By 12:15 the fog was thinking about clearing out and I began the day’s hawkwatch. I had 7 migrating raptors in the first 45 minutes, which had me thinking it might be a good flight. Alas, it was not to be and I had only 2 additional migrating hawks in the next 4 hours! This has not been my year for hawkwatching so far, but I’m hoping that changes starting next Saturday.
Matt,
My best guess for this bird would be a juvenile or transitional female Tennessee Warbler. Nothing else seems to fit for me. All the field marks fit pretty well, while no combination of these field marks fit another species. That said, it is just an educated guess and someone else may come up with a better answer. John
Thanks for helping out, John. Tennessee was my best guess too, but I certainly wasn’t sure, especially since fall warblers and I don’t mix very well. Matt
Don’t know if this is the proper space to mention that on Friday over at the Wallkill River Nat’l Wildlife Preserve, I had the pleasure of sighting and taking pictures of several Yellow Legged Sandpiper, A Great Blue Heron, A great White Egret and a super shot of a Savannah Sparrow..cloudy but nice…Saturday almost the same results, but was able to get a distant sky shot of a Female Harrier Hawk…plenty of Canada Geese moving about most of my time there..
Kenneth – If you ever want to compile a post with some photos and a write up, I would consider posting here. The most important thing is that it is timely, i.e. a recent siting. If you are interested, email pics and write up to orangebirdingdotcom@gmail.com. Matt
I agree with John on the Warbler ID, Matt. It fits a first Fall female Tennessee Warbler: olive green above, light supercillium with dark eyeline, creamy yellow throat and breast with white undertail coverts. Great find! We had one yesterday at The Goosepond Mountain boardwalk on the Mearns Bird Club Trip as well.
Kathy – I saw the eBird rare bird alert for your TEWA first thing this morning and it made me more confident in the ID; they must still be moving through. Sounds like quite a good outing at Goosepond Mountain. Matt
I was out of town Thursday after the Booby at Montauk and on Friday judging a dog show. THEN my home phone line was burned by a power surge over the days when I was away. All got fixed this afternoon and I have JUST seen your Warbler shot Matt and TENNESSEE was exactly the only thing that seemed to fit.
Did you get the Booby? I hope so. Thanks for your thoughts, Ken, seems pretty certain that it was a Tennessee. Matt