Wrapping up Spring Migration with a bang!

By far, my best photos of Cerulean
Warblers were taken today

 
   Today I went back to Plum Island. This time I went with  Laurie and my friend from Connecticut, Nicole. I knew this was about the end of migration birding for me. While I am not opposed to looking at any late birds, I do plan on fishing and herping more. Additionally, next week I'm going to New Hampshire to see what birds I can see and what fish I can catch.

   Today started out spectacularly. One of the first birds we saw was a Cerulean Warbler. Ceruleans are a very rare warbler and they have a habit of feeding high up in the canopy making them that much more frustrating to see. I've only seen three before. Usually I rely on hearing them as my ID to count them for the year. This one today was only fifteen feet up and fed out in the open for ten minutes. This means I saw it roughly nine minutes and fifty seconds more than my other ones combined. 

   A little while later we heard not one, but two Alder Flycatchers. Again, a really rare bird. We listened to it for a few minutes but we could not find it despite sounding close.

   Back on the road at Hellcat, we saw a couple people in one spot. We realized they were listening to a Mourning Warbler. Yes, very rare, and a serious skulker. They do not like to be seen. It stopped singing just as arrived. I heard it once. It did fly out for a brief second and we got a quick look. Only the second one I have seen.

   

A little dark, but an Alder Flycatcher

A little later on we did end up seeing an Alder Flycatcher. Alders look exactly like Willow Flycatchers. Even experts can't tell them apart. They actually used to be the same species until the species was split. The only sure fire way to tell them apart is by song. We did hear this guy say "free beer" as we were watching it. 

   While we were at Parker River, I overheard a guy say the Cliff Swallows were back. They are an extremely tough swallow to get in New England. They told me they were near the bridge on Route 1. Unfortunately, they were wrong. After spending forty five minutes at that bridge we checked ebird reports and they were near the Chain Bridge. We went there and saw them after a few minute wait. They are far too fast for me to attempt a photo of. 

   All in all, we did not see a lot of species today. We had to work hard to see the birds. There were enough birds to keep us focused, but they were few and we had to look hard. The flip side to that is, the quality of birds was phenomenal. All of the birds listed above are once a year type birds. On top of that, we saw a dozen Blackpoll Warblers and a Blackburnian. I didn't take photos of today's Blackburnian but here is a photo I got of one on Tuesday.