Chirps and Cheeps

A rare appearance of a Yellow-throated Warbler was reported in Evangola State Park today. My late afternoon meeting was postponed, so I decided to take the opportunity and see if I could locate this beautiful warbler.

I joined Sal, who had been looking for awhile - and we were soon joined by 2 others: Jim Pawlicki and I believe Brendan? We saw 2 Brown Thrashers, several Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and, for the icing on the cake, we saw a Red-headed Woodpecker!  Finally, after searching the trees for about an hour or so with no luck for the warbler, Jim and his friend left. Soon, Sal left - and finally, I decided to call it quits too. I went towards the lake to look for the Red-headed Woodpecker who had flown in that direction - and saw an Osprey, I believe, flying along the bank.

As I headed back towards my car, my eye caught movement and a flash of yellow in one of the trees that lined the drive. Sure enough, it was the Yellow-throated Warbler! I was only able to grab a few photos before he flew off.  One turned out pretty decent too - and it revealed the fact that this bird was of the Yellow-lored subspecies, the Yellow-throateds that are from the southeastern portion of their range. The other subspecies is a White-lored and these birds are also in the eastern US, but come from the western interior part of their range. What a great lifer!

Back home, one of our House Wrens has finally returned and is setting up house in one of the new bird houses we set up. I thought I heard him yesterday and sure enough, they're BACK!  No Gray Catbirds yet though...