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Mourning Warbler



Although it seems all the action has been on the coast this weekend (150
White-rumped sandpipers!!), I managed to pick a life bird right here in
Charlotte thanks to Wayne and Julie Covenington. I got an excited call from
Wayne Friday evening telling me he had just finished watching a young
Mourning Warbler take a bath in his sprinkler. He and Julie live adjacent
to McAlpine Creek Greenway. I went over Saturday AM but we couldn't
relocate the bird. However, that evening within about 5 mins of the
previous day the bird reappeared for its bath. Of course I wasn't there.
Sunday brought some much needed rain but no bird. I thought the odds were
good the bird might still be around because of the rain, fog and no wind so
I went over last night to sit for a while. I had almost given up and was
preparing to leave when the bird appeared nearly a half hour later than the
other two nights. And it really put on a show exhibiting all of the proper
field marks: large, chunky, bird; broken eye-ring; no wing bars; blue gray
back (light could have been better); yellow on the belly all the way to the
tip of his undertail coverts, slight semblence of a hood although it was
creamier with a hint of yellow under the throat. We have had two other
sightings of this bird in Charlotte. Both were in McAlpine around the first
of September. The last one was September 5 about 5 years ago.


Judy Walker
CIMC/Atkins Library
UNC Charlotte
jwalker@newmail.uncc.edu
Voice: 704-547-2559  Fax: 704-547-3975