While hiking Lake Maria State Park today mid-day, Jeff Eddy and I heard a bird that later in the season we'd have called a slightly atypical Golden-winged Warbler, but so far this year, the closest eBird report for the species is in northern Alabama. We're curious what other species present this time of year it might have been, if not a GWWA.
We do a lot of birding by ear, and this bird's call immediately called to mind the Golden-winged and Blue-winged warblers. It had the "bee" and the "buzz" you'd expect, but in slightly wrong cadences. I can specifically recall hearing "bee-bee-buzz-buzz-buzz" and "bee-bee-bee-buzz-buzz". We also briefly considered the Clay-colored Sparrow, for its similar buzziness, but they tend to be monotonous in contrast to the two tones we heard today. We stuck around for a while to try to get visual confirmation, but failed to see anything other than the usual species that are around: Yellow-rumped Warblers, Dark-eyed Juncos, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Cedar Waxwings, Song Sparrows, Field Sparrows, and Eastern Bluebirds were in the vicinity of the bird making this call. The call would happen sporadically, repeated 1-3 times, and then move to somewhere else nearby after a period of silence, making it hard to track. We stayed as long as we could to try to identify the bird, but eventually had to move on. I also tried recording audio of the call with my camera, but suffered technical difficulties and have nothing to show for it. As for location, it was on the scrubby slope just east of the horse trailer parking (currently closed off) and the clearing on either side of the trail just to the east (The Big Woods Loop). We heard the birds first from the vicinity of the Eastern Bluebird interpretive sign along the Big Woods Loop trail. https://www.google.com/maps/place/45%C2%B018'49.6%22N+93%C2%B056'14.5%22W/@45.3137899,-93.9384668,396m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0 We're curious what other species might have given such a call. I'd love to return tomorrow and chase the bird some more, but I just don't have the time. Anyone else more local is welcome to chase the bird! Dale Trexel ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
