Yellow-rumped Warbler
Maybe it's because the weather was so uncharacteristically warm during March, but to me it feels like it’s taking warblers forever to get to southern Wisconsin this spring. Well, there are Louisiana Waterthrushes at Baxter’s Hollow (to the north) and Yellow-throated Warblers at Wyalusing (to the west), but so far all I have seen are Yellow-rumped Warblers and just a single Pine Warbler. When looking back at mid-April in eBird for warbler species seen up to April 15th, here’s how previous years have compared:
Returning Warblers up to April 15th at Pheasant Branch:
2012: Pine Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler2011: Louisiana Waterthrush, Northern Waterthrush, Black-and-white Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, Northern Parula, Pine Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler2010: Tennessee Warbler, Pine Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler2009: Pine Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warber2008: Louisiana Waterthrush, Yellow-rumped Warbler2007: Yellow-rumped Warbler
Considering this data, it appears 2011 was a warbler anomaly and that maybe my present thoughts of 2012 are biased from my memory of last spring. In comparison, 2012 appears to be pretty normal. This type of seasonal bias has happened to me before with White-throated Sparrows when the previous year got me used to seeing high numbers of them. When numbers returned to normal the following year, my initial impression was that something bad must have happened to the sparrows because they had significantly decreased in numbers. But the truth was that there was an unusually high number of them the previous year at Pheasant Branch Conservancy.
Lots of Violets along the creek corridor path!
Tom Prestby recently wrote an excellent summary of the early returning migratory birds during March and how the weather played a role. Bird species that winter in the southern United States were able to take advantage of the warmer weather patterns, but neotropical migratory birds had no idea what was going up here weather-wise and are pretty much right on schedule.
Pheasant Branch, Dane, US-WI
Apr 15, 2012 7:15 AM - 9:15 AM
53 species
Canada Goose
Wood Duck
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Green-winged Teal
Horned Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Red-tailed Hawk
American Kestrel
American Coot
Killdeer
Spotted Sandpiper
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Blue Jay
American Crow
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
House Wren
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Brown Thrasher
European Starling
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Chipping Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Purple Finch
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
All images © 2012 Mike McDowell