[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Warbler waves hit Durham!



Hi c-birders,

I was certainly in the right places at the right times yesterday and 
today! I've been looking enviously on for most of the spring as everyone 
else reported spring migrants, seeing very few myself. Not anymore!

Yesterday, I had a great time on the Durham spring count. The highlights 
were 14 Warbler species, plus a Marsh Wren and some lingering Ruddy 
Ducks. I and two friends, including ex-Carolinabirder Don Bright-Smith, 
were assigned the abandoned railroad bed off Will Suitt Road (aka the 
Buff-breasted Sandpiper spot). The wren was near the end of the trail, 
after the bay on the right (now swamping the trail due to the high water 
levels!) but before the open grassy area at the end near the Osprey nest 
platform. No idea how long it might stay. Most of the warblers were in 
the half-mile or so before the bay, including a pair of Worm-eatings (one 
heard-only, one seen and heard) that were singing amidst a massive swarm 
of Yellow-rumps. The exception was a Blue-winged Warbler which we heard 
in a shrubby area about 1/2 a mile from where we parked. We also had a 
brief fly-over Northern Harrier out near the end, and a gobbling Wild 
Turkey in the fog early on.

We did have several shocking misses, most of them blue. No Blue 
Grosbeaks, Eastern Bluebirds, not even a single Blue Jay! And we only 
heard Black-throated Blue and Blue-winged Warblers, we never did see 
them. I will conspicuously omit any conspiracy theories involving blue 
birds, as those seem to be causing flames on a par with hunting and cats 
lately. Maybe my friends and I had some strange sort of blue-only 
colorblindness yesterday...  Also no Red-tailed Hawks or White-breasted 
Nuthatches. And, like Will, we were short on Carolina Wrens, recording 
only 3.

On our way back to the car around 11 AM, the birds were exceedingly 
quiet. However, the herps picked up some of the action. We found a Ground 
Skink (Scincella lateralis), which I had seen many times in Texas but 
never here, a ditch full of Spotted Salamander larvae, the usual scads of 
Cricket Frogs, and a very colorful Eastern Box Turtle. After the 
countdown at West Point on the Eno, I added two Broad-headed Skinks 
(Eumeces laticeps). Lois Schultz mentioned that she and Mike had a Green 
Snake (didn't mention whether it was Keeled or Smooth) on their count.

I was even more surprised this morning to find that the warblers had 
followed me home! My house is usually not very good for migrants, despite 
the location near the Duke Forest, but today was different. I heard 
Black-throated Blue Warblers before I even got out of bed, and heard 
Black-throated Green and Yellow-breasted Chat after walking outside. Just 
as my housemate, transplanted New Mexican birder Norm Douglas, joined me, 
I spotted orange in the treetops: Blackburnian Warbler, a lifer for Norm! 
We settled down and watched for a while, and Norm was rewarded with two 
more lifers, Black-and-White Warbler and Northern Waterthrush. A male 
Common Yellowthroat appeared in the same binocular view as the 
waterthrush at one point. I added seven new birds to the yard list, all 
of them warblers. And while it didn't count on the yard list, while 
riding my bike down Morreene Road to school, I heard a Magnolia Warbler 
singing from some big deciduous trees near an apartment complex. What a 
morning!

Good birding,

Josh



Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Zoology

jsr6@acpub.duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/