On Tuesday morning, I went to Sapsucker Woods, thinking that last night’s storm might have downed some boreal thrushes and other birds. I found almost nothing on the Wilson Trail, but eventually found a warbler flock by the shelter on the East Trail, including an adult male CAPE MAY WARBLER and a few BLACKPOLL WARBLERS. I didn’t detect any Catharus species at all, despite some effort.
Then, having seen on eBird that Ruth Bennett had found many warblers and vireos at noon along the Wilson Trail North, I created an excuse to return in mid-afternoon. Where the trail enters the woods just past the Owens Platform, I found a little flurry of songbirds -- at least two WILSON’S WARBLERS, a BAY-BREASTED WARBLER, NASHVILLE WARBLER, BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER, and a BLUE-HEADED VIREO, plus a BROWN CREEPER and many chickadees. A few quiet minutes later, I approached the Charley Harper bench. I saw two birds foraging on the ground. One was a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, right on schedule, behaving just as I had seen in past Septembers and Octobers. But the other – what a splendid surprise! It was another CAPE MAY WARBLER. This bird eventually stayed long past the Yellow-rumped, offering me about 30 minutes of close, unobscured views and very good photo ops, right there in front of the bench. It was much duller than the Cape May Warbler that I saw in the morning. I’m still not sure, however, of the age and sex of the afternoon bird. Here is my afternoon eBird checklist, which contains some photos. https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S48743798 Mark Chao -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
