On Tuesday 28 May, Mike Vedder found what he was pretty sure was a Kentucky Warbler, singing at Heckscher SP, Suffolk County, Long Island. The bird was not visible, and he was not able to obtain a recording. He called Patricia J. Lindsay, but she was birding
Nickerson Beach, Nassau County, and thus unable to follow up the report until the following morning. On Wednesday morning, PJL readily heard the bird singing to the south of the Forty Foot Road, east of the Administration compound and west of where the road
bends 90 degrees to the north. She called me, working at home, and I quickly joined her. The bird was singing constantly and nearer to the road now, and we reported this to the local birders as we waited for visual confirmation. Because the bird would sing
for extended periods without moving from its perch, seeing it required patience, waiting until one saw it fly to a new perch that happened to be unobstructed by foliage. This accomplished, I turned attention to what sounded like a Yellow-throated Warbler,
singing in the vicinity. I was not able to see this bird as it moved around the area, and I heard it last on the north side of the road opposite the Administration compound. We communicated this to our local contacts, including the Captree Birding Fiends (sic)
and Keith Klein, and then returned to our nearby home to work.
Arriving a little later, John Gluth and Keith Klein readily found the Kentucky Warbler and turned attention to the YTWA-like song. This individual bird was sonsistently difficult to see as it foraged and sang high in the canopy, but as they sought it, they
were astonished to see (and photograph) a male Black-throated Gray Warbler! They got the word out, and I was dragged from my desk for a second time that morning, but not before communicating their amazing discovery to the listserv.
By the time PJL and I arrived on site at 11:47, the Kentuck Warbler had gone silent, but the singer of the YTWA-like song was singing almost constantly, though roving about more widely than a territorial
Dendroica typically would—often around the corner where the 90 degree bend, two-track to the east, and Horseshoe Trail to the south intersect, but also as far to the southeast as the southern edge of the field east of the two-track. The possibility that
this singer and the Black-throated Gray Warbler were the same loomed in our minds, and I was very desirous of seeing the bird, proving this by pursuing the song through the thigh-high grass of the afore-mentioned field when it appeared that the bird might
be trending off in that direction. (The net result of this maneuver was continuous contact with the singer and just one adult male Lone Star Tick.)
Fortunately, the singer returned to the area of the 90 degree bend, where John and PJL and I were joined by Pat Palladino. Famously eagle-eyed, both Pats fixed on the singer and helped John and me get on it. We noted that it was in fact the Black-throated Gray
Warbler! Singing almost constantly, it was relatively easy for newly arriving birders to track it around the area southeast of the 90 degree bend, but very difficult to see. In the afternoon, it I don’t think it ever ranged as far west or north as it had in
the morning.
Two notes about Merlin: While we were waiting for views of the Kentucky Warbler in the morning, PJL turned on Merlin to pass the time (my phone is not and never has been allowed to think of such things). Although the app picked up in real time, and correctly
identified, the American Redstarts, Yellow Warblers, Red-eyed Vireos, and Gray Catbirds we were hearing—and even discerned an almost impossibly distant Eastern Wood-Pewee, it flatly ignored the almost painfully loud songs of the Kentucky Warbler! Not even
registering the existence of a bird at the moments it sang. Conversely, during our later stalking of the Black-throated Gray Warbler, Merlin consistently identifed its songs as those of Yellow-throated Warbler. My interpretation of these foibles is that the
algorithm has probably been over-tweaked to emphasize geographical location and eBird frequency data (Kentucky Warbler is genuinely rare in Suffolk County, whereas Yellow-throated Warbler occurs here regularly). This sort of AI stupidity would be an understandable
consequence of attempts to solve Merlin’s notorious “Philadelphia Vireo Problem,” but it’s worth noting here so that future birders might know the indignities our generation is suffering in the quest for fully automated bird detection.
08:12 am Thursday the 30th—just go the call from PJL that Suzy Feustel has an Olive-sided Flycatcher at Heckscher. Stay Tuned.
Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
From: bounce-128232517-11143...@list.cornell.edu <bounce-128232517-11143...@list.cornell.edu> on behalf of Shaibal Mitra <shaibal.mi...@csi.cuny.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2024 11:33 AM
To: NYSBIRDS (NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu) <NYSBIRDS-L@cornell.edu>
Subject: [nysbirds-l] Black-throated Gray, Kentucky, and Yellow0throated Warblers Heckcher SP, Suffolk County
Black-throated Gray, Kentucky, and Yellow-throated Warblers are present this morning at Heckscher SP, Suffolk County. They are in the woods along the Forty Foot Road, east of Field 1 and Admin compound.
Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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