Black-and-white Warbler
Time flies when the warbler watching is good! I'm extremley grateful that the muscle injury that kept me inside most of July seems to have completely healed. I've been walking the creek corridor at Pheasant Branch Conservancy almost daily for the past few weeks without any difficulty. Though warbler numbers have been somewhat low, the diversity has been a little better than average. So far 16 warbler species have been found during my walks along the corridor:
Unfortunately, we're looking at an extremely warm week with south winds, which will definitely have an impact bird migration. There will continue to be small numbers of new arrivals, but we'll have to wait until the next cold front moves in before we see substantial mixed species flocks once again. This morning the situation was very quiet until 9:30AM when we spotted a single Golden-winged Warbler. Within a few minutes we found Wilson's Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, several Chestnut-sided Warblers, Black-and-White Warblers, and more (see the checklist at the bottom). It's interesting how it can be so quiet for a few hours and then the activity just suddenly erupts. I noticed the rush appeared to correlate to a slight dip in temperature, but at the same time the chickadees and titmice began foraging with more intensity.
Water droplets
During the slow periods I photographed wildflowers and other interesting subjects along the creek corridor, keeping my ears on alert for chip-notes and flight calls. This will likely be my last blog post for August, which brings up September. Warbler migration should be pretty solid through much of next month, but near the end I'll be switching gears to sparrow migration at the prairie parcel. Will there be a Harris's Sparrow once again? Or maybe some ammodramus species like Le Conte's or Nelson's? It's fun to think about, but right now it's time to enjoy the warblers. Once they've moved on, we won't see them again until April.
Yellow Jewelweed
Garden Phlox
Groundnut
Jack-in-the-pulpit
Pheasant Branch, Dane, Wisconsin, US
Aug 30, 2015 7:00 AM - 10:30 AM
46 species
Wood Duck
Mallard
Ring-billed Gull
Mourning Dove
Chimney Swift
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Northern Flicker
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Great Crested Flycatcher
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Gray Catbird
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Waterthrush
Golden-winged Warbler
Blue-winged Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Nashville Warbler
American Redstart
Magnolia Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Song Sparrow
Northern Cardinal
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow
All images © 2015 Mike McDowell