Day 125: May 4th – Mine Road Warblers

High 60s, overcast, but calm

              We had plenty of rain in the form of some pretty wild thunderstorms, but this morning things have quieted down and it makes for a nice morning to be out early looking for warblers.  My birding site today is Mine Road, close to home since we are off to visit son Brian and his family in Connecticut later this morning.

       It’s pretty quiet for the first stretch of the road, so I pull of and park along the roadside and walk an area where in year’s past it has been fairly productive.  Sure enough, after only a short trek, I hear the familiar call of the Blue-winged warbler.  

       The bird is right where I expected.  Strange how the same location year after year produces the same species.  One of the birds has come in fairly close and perches above me.  At first, the bird is backlit with what sunlight there is creating a silhouette of the warbler…..not at all what I’m looking for.  The bird then moves into a more shaded location where the lighting is more muted.  I’m a big fan of nice bright sunlight, but there are photographers who are better than me who profess to prefer this muted light and lo and behold, today it works for me.

       After shooting this bird whenever it comes into good view, and spending considerable time getting these shots, I hear a second species, the Yellow warbler. 

       This is one of those birds whose name makes absolute sense.  Augmented by beautiful stripes of red for the males, this bird is hard to mis-identify.  The song, likewise with its “sweet-sweet-little more sweet” is like no other warbler as well.  Ah, it they were only all this easy to find, to identify, and finally to photograph!  

       It looks like the warbler invasion is on!  Let’s see what the rest of the month produces.