Chirps and Cheeps

I started out the day birding at a very foggy Times Beach.  This is at least the third time I've come up here to find thick fog.  It makes birding tough and photos nearly impossible!  But good thing you can still hear in the fog - I wasn't there for long when I heard the unmistakable ascending call of the Prairie Warbler.  I quickly found the songster and he gave me some really nice views.  I felt bad I had missed one that was seen a week or so ago so this was an extra special treat!  And a second treat was soon to follow...

I got a text message that another Prothonotary Warbler had been seen at Forest Lawn.  Wow!  After searching for the one at Amherst SP for so many hours just yesterday, I was stunned to hear that another had been found.  It's just bizarre that there would be TWO in just two days when there hadn't been one in YEARS prior to this.  Amazing.  And, since the Prothonotary would be a county bird, you know I left in a rush for Forest Lawn.

When I arrived, I joined many birders who were all desperately searching for the beautiful and rare warbler.  Prothonotaries do come to our region, but they seem exclusive to the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge,  There have only been a couple of legitimate sightings of one in Erie County.  So, this was quite a big deal and birders were now flooding to the cemetery.

A group of us split up to search and, as luck would have it, I ended up spotting it along the stone wall of the creek.  I knew Prothonotaries liked water so that's where I focused my search.  I quickly summoned my "guys" and we were all ecstatic to watch this gorgeous warbler poke around the walls of the creek for insects.  We feasted our eyes and our lenses on this bird for a good, long time.

The next day, I went back to Forest Lawn to try to find the Orchard Orioles I kept missing.  I got a tip from Peter Y that they were up at the Main Street bridge.  Sure enough, after a good 45 minutes of waiting, I finally saw one emerge from the white blossoms of a cherry tree.  There was both an adult female and a young male.  I watched them pick insects out of the blossoms for a good long time, enjoying them every minute.

The cemetery is a green oasis for migrating birds and it was LOADED with warblers these past two days.  They consisted primarily of  Bay-breasted, Cape May, Black-throated Blue, and Northern Parulas.  I don't believe I've ever experienced a spring like this.  The numbers of the Cape May Warblers was staggering - perhaps up to a hundred of them were scattered throughout the cemetery and that's low-balling it.  I don't know what the dynamics are, but I think this will end up being a spring for the record books!