Stéphane’s Blog for May 19, 2011

Fog and Rain!

The fog was so dense this morning that even the Gargantua, our own shipwreck, was barely visible. It also rained at the same time for almost all morning. Needless to say, there was no banding. However, in late morning, during a break in the rain, some observations were made. And, actually, there were quite a few birds.nIt seems that it was one big, mixed flock of warblers, with a few chickadees, moving quickly in the trees. A total of 16 species of warblers was detected, the highest so far this spring, including the bfirst Blackpoll of the season.

For people who like lists, here is the complete list of the 16 species (with number of individuals in brackets). For all the other ones, just skip the paragraph. Orange-crowned Warbler (1); Nashville Warbler (20); Chestnut-sided Warbler (4); Magnolia Warbler (4); Cape May Warbler (4); Yellow-rumped Warbler (90! still lots of them around); Black-throated Green Warbler (5); Blackburnian Warbler (9); Pine Warbler (2); Palm Warbler (24); Bay-breasted Warbler (1); Blackpoll Warbler (1); Black-and-white Warbler (3); American Redstart (10); Ovenbird (3); Common Yellowthroat (2).

And that’s it! In the afternoon, we also observed a Canada Warbler. Surprisingly missing are Yellow and Black-throated Blue Warbler. Oh well, can’t have it all!

There were also lots of White-crowned Sparrow, in abundance usually seen in early April than now…  What a strange spring!

Stéphane