Excellent numbers of migrant landbirds were seen at Park Point in Duluth today (Monday, 15 Sep) as kettles of Broad-wingeds passed overhead. Many Northern Flickers, 3 species of vireos including at least 8 Philadephia Vireos, Brown Creepers, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Swainson's Thrush, 100s of Cedar Waxwings, and White-throated and White-crowned sparrows were seen, but the majority of birds were warblers (22 species, no Golden-winged, Blackburnian, Connecticut, or Mourning warblers). Sue Barton and I were there from about 11:30 AM to 3:30 PM, and were joined by Frank Nicoletti and two out-of-state birders (Seth and Jason, sorry, forgot last names) for part of the afternoon. All of our sightings were in the vicinity of the ballfields at the Park Point Recreation Area.
After birding along the lakeshore on the harbor side of the Recreation Area between the bus turn around and the boat ramp (where most of the Tennessee, Nashville, and Yellow warblers, and Common Yellowthroats were found), I spent about 2 hours standing in one spot on a trail in the woods near the beach house and tried to estimate numbers for each warbler species as the birds worked their way down the point. I would call this a tidal surge of warblers rather than "waves of warblers" since there was literally no period of time without multiple birds on all sides. Once, I had 20 Chestnut-sided Warblers in view simultaneously. The following totals represent conservative estimates for the 4 hours between 11:30 AM and 3:30 PM. It should be noted that Seth and Jason reported excellent warbler migration during the morning hours before our arrival and that we sampled only a very small portion of Park Point. Tennessee Warbler 150 Orange-crowned Warbler 2 Nashville Warbler 75 Northern Parula 8 Yellow Warbler 50 Chestnut-sided Warbler 100 Magnolia Warbler 25 Cape May Warbler 3 Black-throated Blue Warbler 1 (female, PHS) Yellow-rumped Warbler 75 Black-throated Green Warbler 3 Pine Warbler 1 (adult male, PHS) Palm Warbler 100 (plus another 100 at 40th Ave West) Bay-breasted Warbler 4 Blackpoll Warbler 6 Black-and-white Warbler 50 American Redstart 500 Ovenbird 2 Northern Waterthrush 1 Common Yellowthroat 50 Wilson's Warbler 2 Canada Warbler 1 (FJN) -- Peder H. Svingen - [email protected] - Duluth, MN
