2023-10-04
Checking out the prairie warbler
It is usually around this time of year that I find a prairie warbler.
I had been searching high and low and on Sept. 24, while birding at Broad Cove, I found one. I was at the end of a driveway, at a location where I always stop, which has produced great birds in the past, when I noted a warbler close to me.
I immediately recognized it as a prairie warbler, but it did not present itself long and only allowed time for a quick photo. The bird then flew to the shoreline side of the road where it became the most co-operative prairie warbler that I've ever come across. It kept popping up about four feet away from me to the top of some plant, where it was getting food from. Amazingly, it wasn't phased at all when vehicles went by.
The prairie warbler nests in South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, New York, Vermont and in New Hampshire, south to Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Atlanta, Georgia, Florida and the Florida Keys. They winter on islands off southeast Mexico and Central America and from Florida south through the West Indies to Nicaragua.
The prairie warbler is 11.25 to 13 cm. long with a wingspread of 15.6 to 18 cm. The male in spring is olive green above with inconspicuous chestnut marks on the back, and bright yellow below. The sides are striped with black. The sides of the face are yellow but there is a black streak through the eye and below the eyes.
There are two pale yellow wing bars. There are white patches on the outer tail feathers. The females are like the male, but duller. The prairie warbler feeds mostly on insects and spiders.
We had five days where lots of migrants were moving through.
On Sept. 18 Barbara McLean found an eastern kingbird at Shoreline Drive in Lunenburg. Glenn Rhodenizer of Second Peninsula let me know that bobolinks were still around and some shorebirds were on the fields that he did not recognize. He also reported a yellow-headed blackbird that arrived on Sept. 18 and hung around for three days.
On Sept. 22, I went looking for the blackbird without success. It was last seen the day before. However, I was rewarded with finding a pied-billed grebe and a clay-coloured sparrow. Steven Morris on that day had a blue grosbeak, an American pipit and nine American golden plovers.
I suspect that the golden plovers might have been the birds that Glenn reported to me that he did not recognize. On the same day, I had a blue grosbeak pay a brief visit to my home in LaHave. On Sept. 23, Wilma Clancy saw a spotted sandpiper and a horned lark on Broad Cove Beach.
On Sept. 24 at Broad Cove I had three gray catbirds, a female northern pintail and a solitary sandpiper. Numbers of yellow-rumped warbers were also around on that day. At Cherry Hill Beach I found a group of migrating palm warblers.
After tropical storm Lee, Lise Bell of Bush Island had a Wilson's storm petrel in her yard. At Dipper Creek near Beach Meadows, Robin Anthony was lucky in sighting a white-faced storm petrel.
I made a birding trip to Queens County on Sept. 26 and birded Liverpool, Brooklyn, Western Head, Beach Meadows, East Berlin and West Berlin. It was the quietest that I've ever seen it, with no birds anywhere in any of the good birding areas that I frequent. I only saw 15 species and all in low numbers.
By Sept. 26 things had quieted down across most of the province. I made a birding trip with Steven Morris and Michael Lovely to Cape Sable Island and to Bacarro and we came up with only 35 species. My best bird for the trip would have to be dunlins as they were a new species for me for the year and we had some great opportunities at photographing this species. The other good bird that we saw on the trip was a Hudsonian godwit, but it was very far away.
On Sept. 19 Rick Whitman reported 15 Hudsonian godwits at Grand Pre. Liz Doull had 15 killdeer at Caroll's Corner. Jim Edsall found a blue-winged warbler at Hartlen Point on Sept. 20. A dickcissel was a good find for Diane LeBlanc at Chebucto Head on Sept. 21.
Jason Dain found a warbling vireo at Hartlen Point. Logan Moore reported a yellow-billed cuckoo at the Port Bickerton Lighthouse. Sept. 22 produced a white-eyed vireo at Portugeuse Cove for Diane LeBlanc and a prairie warbler and Baltimore oriole at the York Redoubt. On Sept. 23 Mark Dennis spotted a yellow-throated warbler at Beaverdam. Paul Gould found a clay-coloured sparrow at the Lobster Pond Road in Cape Forchu.
Lucas Berrigan discovered a white-eyed vireo at Duncan's Cove on Sept. 24 and Paelo Matteucci an indigo bunting at the Pleasant Hill Cemetery on the same day. Logan Lalonde reported a warbling vireo at the Harvest Moon Trail.
On Sept. 25 the gull-billed tern was still being observed at Grand Pre. Lori Buhlman located a house wren and a northern waterthrush at Bissett Lake on that day and Jim Edsall had a brown thrasher at Hartlen Point. A clay-coloured sparrow at Crystal Crescent Beach was a nice find by Diane LeBlanc.
Sept. 26 yielded a white-eyed vireo at Jerry Lane in Cape Forchu for Alix d'Entremont and a warbling vireo at Clam Point on Cape Sable Island for Mark Dennis.
You may reach me at (902) 693-2174 or email jrhbirder@hotmail.com.
