I arrived at Connetquot this morning (~8:15) not having heard anything about the Yellow-throated Warbler since Derek Roger's post Monday, let alone that it had relocated from the fish hatchery. So I planned to make the 15-20 min. walk up there and then just concentrate my search in the area it had been frequenting, hoping to hear its song. Well, I had barely begun my northward trek up the hatchery road when I heard THAT song coming from trees growing along the north side of the old horse corral (between main buildings and the horse barn: 40.751682,-73.151090)! I was stunned by this seemingly amazing bit of serendipity. I followed the bird over the next few minutes as it moved east through the trees (mid-upper canopy) between the corral and road. Then it stopped singing. I waited 10 minutes for it to resume. When it didn't, I continued up to the hatchery since I still had much of the 2 hours search time I'd allotted myself.
The walk to the hatchery was pretty quiet, the one notable exception being 3 Ovenbirds, each advertising its territories to its neighbors. The area around the hatchery was moderately more active. During the 75 minutes I spent looping around the complex I encountered low single-digit numbers of Yellow-rumped, and Yellow warblers, 1 B&W Warbler, 1 Common Yellowthroat, a few Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, 1 Great-crested Flycatcher, 1 E. Phoebe, and 1 Baltimore Oriole. Chipping Sparrows were abundant. A pair of Fish Crows were building a nest. Upon returning to where I'd had the YTWA earlier, I again heard it singing, and went into pursuit mode. That's when Dave Klauber and I converged on the bird, both of us getting nice looks at it over ~10 minutes. If you go for the bird, the best plan of action would probably be to stand in the field adjacent to the parking lot, close to the White Pines lining the road (across from the garage, 40.750085,-73.151810), and just listen. The bird should eventually come within earshot. The bird was seen in oaks, White Pines and Pitch Pines. The best of the few mediocre photos I got of the YTWA can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jgluth_brb/7125351027/in/set-72157628749286175 John Gluth -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
