Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Five Canada Warblers, a Chestnut-Sided and an Alder Flycatcher

All moving through in two hours this weekend.

We are way in the tail end of the migration bell curve by now, the vast majority of them approximately one billion Neotropical migrants going north, the survivors of the about three billion staring south in late summer, are already well up North where most of you guys live. The sequence is predictable, each species having its own bell curve of passage within the total bell curve. Around here migration closes out with flycatchers and Canada warblers.

Its always a surprise how quick spring migration picks up, and how quickly the show is over. Just two weeks back it was still prime time, 40 million little birds a night crossing the Gulf, by next week it will indeed be all over.

After all these years picked up my first alder flycatcher this weekend, a lifer. I've prob'ly seen a bunch before, its just that it looks about exactly like a willow flycatcher, a drab little bird. You can only tell 'em apart by habitat, breeding range, and voice and they are mostly quiet when they ain't actually breeding. This one was calling. Anyways, this is what an Alder flycatcher looks like, pretty much like what every other flycatcher in the genus Empidonax looks like.... (all these photos lifted off of the 'net)



I dunno why Canada warblers are the last warbler through after most all the other warbler species, likewise colorful little birds that eat bugs, have gone ahead. They really do nest mostly in Canada, in wet brushy undergrowth. Likewise I dunno why they are among the first to go back south in July and early August. Nor do I know why they have to go clear to the slopes of the Andes to spend the off-season, but if I seen five in the same area in two hours that means we were absolutely inundated with migrating Canada warblers around here this weekend.



The chestnut-sided was a bit late for a chestnut-sided. She was a female so that helps, males gotta get there first to claim a territory. Like all chestnut-sided she was hopping through the foliage peering at the underside of leaves, because that is how chesnut-sideds feed; picking insects off of the bottom of leaves. They don't go clear to South America, most stop in Central America. In North America they breed in open brushy areas in the early stages of succession. Again, why a warbler that picks bugs off the bottom of leaves happens to be especially suited for breeding in open brushy area I have no idea.



Figure about 150 miles a night average, by next weekend all these guys oughtta be about 1,000 miles north of here in Nebraska or the Dakotas, ten days and 1,500 miles put them on the breeding grounds in the first week of June,

Around here next weekend the spring migration show will be about over. OK, about 1,000,000,000 migrants total every spring means a lot of stragglers, beat the bushes and you can still find some beat-up looking ones having trouble around here until early June, or even the odd one all summer if it comes to that, but it ain't really worth your time to look.

Show's over until next year, picking up beginning in early April. I can never get excited by the return passage of the Arctic shorebirds through here beginning around July 4th, which means its all over until dove season opens September 1. Two weeks after that hawk migration through the Coastal Bend will pick up big time. Until then I pretty much hang up my binocs.

Birdwatcher

We have bluejays out the ass down here now!

Thanks for your posts I really enjoy them! The migrants are here
in upstate New York but are hard to find in the foliage.

My son got a good pic of a Great Crested Flycatcher yesterday near Front Royal.

I.D.ing birds can be tough, especially the females. Little beggers won't sit still!

Those Canada warblers nest in middle-eastern North Dakota.

I participated in the annual Birdathon last Saturday the 13th here in Berrien County- SW Michigan. It was my first Birdathon. I had a great time. My team of 4 was lead by the naturalist at Fernwood Botanical Garden. She has done it for 27 years in a row and is quite good at identifying birds just by their vocalizations. We started at 4am and picked up several species before dawn. Our team did well with 105 species either seen or heard. The winning team got 134 species. I picked up 18 lifers (I am new to this area since last August). My favorite was the Sora Rail which we heard before it got light at a marsh and then saw it once it got light.

I forgot to add that my wife and I plan to go up to Oscoda and Alpena, MI the first weekend of June. In the Oscoda area we plan to join a group tour to hopefully see the Kirtland's Warbler. The following weekend near Hastings, MI we plan to do a group tour to hopefully see the Cerulean Warbler.

I've never been/seen one but I would expect the Kirland's oughtta be a slam dunk, all the birds presumably being so well mapped out.

Ceruleans rock a tiny 4.3" bird that so far as we know flies in long hops from the Northern Andes to the mountains of Central America, and from there non-stop across the Gulf and beyond. To be able to do that it has the same relatively long pointed wings and long streamlined-looking undertail coverts that make the tail look short, same as the blackpoll and Connecticut warblers, likewise long-hop migrants.





Their nests look like hummingbird nests, and they are placed on a high branch with room to free-fall below it, when leaving the nest they drop straight down to gain airspeed for those long wings.



Ceruleans have been declining and disappearing most places, except in parts of the Northeast where they have been extending their range. Not far north of NYC where I went to high school there weren't any ceruleans back then, but I know I'm getting old when I see how much bigger the trees have gotten since then, as the forests have been maturing the ceruleans have been moving in.

This pertaining to the decline of ceruleans from "Birds of North America Online", a subscriber site I would highly recommend. Cerulean Warblers occur in winter at the same elevation where coca is grown; coca production is increasing in response to growing demand for powder and crack cocaine among North American and European populations.

This year I saw three ceruleans, all males, in the same area on the Gulf Coast back in April.

With respect to Birdathons; great fun indeed, I've done the Texas Gulf Coast Birdathon a couple of times with students, altho the price of entry is steep. If ya enter into an adult divisiondown here you had better bring your game on, some of the Engineering and Oil Companies down here front birding teams that absolutely do NOT mess around

Birdwatcher

Fantastic photos! Thanks.

Intermittent showers and thunderstorms Monday night, cleared out by a sustained North wind; late in the season but textbook conditions for grounding migrants. Such a beautiful evening Tuesday I skipped out and spent a couple of hours out with binocs in a local park.

A single Swainson's thrush found (pic lifted off of the internet).





Might be my last migrant for the year. Swainson's thrush are the common thrush of the Canadian North Woods, and a kazillion pass through here each spring on their way back from some anonymous patch of understory bushes somewhere in South America. It always seem ironic that a bird that wintered in the Tropical boonies somewhere and on its way to somewhere in the North Woods boonies should turn up here in the West Side of this big city, while oblivious park patrons pass by just yards away. The last people that thrush was around, if any, were somewhere in the Tropics.

Beside random mischances of genetics, poor physical condition on the wintering grounds can cause late migration, and prolonged stop-overs enroute. A few never get there, stopping off and lingering for some time short of their destination until all chances of breeding are lost.

Today for the first time ever I saw a Cerulean Warbler. I got great looks at it while it was singing from only about 15 yards away. It was a real treat. This was in SW Michigan.

Thanks Birdie,

Love the updates.

Heard my first oriole here along the Snake river when I got back from N Ca the other day. They nest around our place here in WA.

Saw one (a female) at our place down in N Cali where it was completely unexpected. She was pulling threads out of our "astroturf" carpet on the deck. Guessing she will attempt a nest somewhere in the area.

Male kestrel was just at the opening to their nest, so I guess they're still doing OK since I went south for a week.

Geno

We had a huge flock of circling bald eagles last night, just riding thermals. Watched for a while and noticed a pair lower and closer to us by quite a bit, obvious goldens. We get many passing through but they do not stay on the coast at all and most are long gone through here.

Constant calling from several canada geese subspecies and sandhill cranes coming through any open window here. Sounds like a good year.

My favorite bird here on the place are the pileated woodpeckers! The old people called him "The Little Warrior". He's always painted for war.

Lots of Canada geese around this year. Bastids are eating my lentils.

Meadowlarks have been back for a while, just waiting for the finches.

Lots of cerlews and duck nests. Been dry so its probably going to be a great year for upland birds.

The dry sucks a bit though. The pond is dry next to my house. I wont be seeing any Wilsons Phalaropes swimming in circles in the mornings.

I've been all over the 'net looking for a clean recording of the flight call of a Swainson's thrush, the point being that on cool September nights, backed by a steady north breeze this is one of the most common sounds all across the Lower 48 as Swainson's, thick as fleas, pass overhead on their long journeys from the North Woods to South America.

IME the closer to the North Woods ya are the more there are passing overhead, being closer to the source. Some guy in Oregon reported counting more'n five hundred in an hour. Where I especially recall them from was back in my distance-running days in college in Upstate New York, I'd go running at night and the skies would be filled with these notes.

A Swainson's gives a soft "oowheep" that sounds exactly like a spring peeper (frog), but to illustrate the concept here's a clean recording of a hermit thrush, which likewise breeds up north and likewise passes overhead in droves, just somewhat later than Swainson's prob'ly on account of they don't migrate nearly so far.



Birdwatcher

I've been waiting and one has shown up.

First sighting and hearing of the common nighthawks we have around here. They roost in some of the big locusts and fly over our fields displaying in the early summer.

For those who have never seen or heard their displays, here's a "decent" home video I found on you tube.



Geno

Common nighthawks are another bird that goes way the heck down to Uruguay and Argentina, and since they breed pretty much over the entire land area of the Lower 48 States (not much at all in Canada) that's an awful lot of nighthawks migrating to like 1/3 or less the land area down there. So much so I'm not sure there is a common South American nighthawk that feeds up high like our nighthawks do, as best I can determine they have to make do with our nighthawks in their Southern Hemisphere summer.

One thing cool (literally) about the nighthawk family is that they can crank down their metabolism, not only to survive cold weather but hot weather as well. On a hot urban rooftop a nighthawk can crank down its metabolism to minimize internal heat production, and by panting actually lose body heat at 115F. Their internal air sac system also extends under the skin of their bellies, so in the ultra-hot conditions that nighthawks can find themselves nesting in, they can actually cool their eggs while they sit on 'em.

Anyhoo.... two eggs a brood, one brood a year most places, both parents feed the young, which is surprising, the way male nighthawks display I woulda thought the males just displayed all summer while females raised the young. Might be they need two parents involved because their foraging window is actually pretty short; dusk and dawn.

I just stepped outside a little while ago (5:30am). A lot of purple martins around here, a sign of the folks who USED to live here. This was/is an Air Force town with a lot of Greatest Generation retirees. Back then a lot of these people used to put up aluminum purple martin houses in their yards. That generation has passed on now but many of the bird houses remain, even though the area has gone working class Hispanic. Ya get a lot of bird houses that look like this....



...but which still get purple martins.

Breeding purple martin males fly up over their nest site before dawn and sing, to attract migrating females, so if you step out here after about 5am early April thru early June ya hear this from somewhere up in the dark....



Its gonna quit for the year around here pretty soon, most local young are out of the nest by mid-June, and it gets less every spring as these old houses get taken down/fall apart over the years.

Birdwatcher

Really nice pictures of birds you're showing Birdwatcher, not to mention the text. I'll be in eastern Idaho for the next couple weeks. I'll have to look around at the different birds while fishing. BTW, what binoculars do you use? Thanks.

12, blue jays, two squaking birds, six crows. All f...king over my vegetables. Also sorry squirrels too.