Birders from all over the Carolinas descended on Hendersonville in the
southern Appalachians for the Carolina Bird Club spring meeting last
weekend to witness warblers at their finest. What makes spring birding
in this region so special is that the warblers arrive and begin singing
before the trees have had a chance to leaf out. This gives birders a
great opportunity to see these elusive, beautiful songsters in their
breeding finery that just doesn't exist in the piedmont or coastal
plain.
I lead a couple field trips around Polk County in
the Saluda area and, including some extra birding while "off-duty,"
spotted 25 warblers over the weekend--an excellent haul.
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| Swainson's Warbler, Pearson's Falls |
This
Swainson's Warbler I found on an afternoon trip to Pearson's Falls, was
unusually cooperative; normally photographing warblers is an exercise
in futility. The sprightly little birds are often far away, rarely sit
still, and when they do happen to take a sedentary moment nearby,
there's inevitably a branch in the way and/or poor lighting. Why don't I just paunch into a rough guide to taking mediocre warbler photos?
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| Palm Warbler, Lake Junaluska |
Here's a friendly Palm Warbler, but it was late in the day and the sun was just in the wrong place.
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| Blackburnian Warbler, Max Patch Road |
This is a typical view of a Blackburnian Warbler...100 ft straight up. Not much one can do about that.
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| Yellow-throated Warbler, Polk County |
This
was a rare case in which a canopy species, Yellow-throated Warbler,
inexplicably dropped down to about eye level, and next to our parked
vehicles on my Warrior Mountain trip to boot. Not a rare bird, but one that I rarely see this well,
and a crowd-pleaser for sure.
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| Cerulean Warbler, Blue Ridge Parkway north of Asheville |
The joy of birding along the Blue Ridge Parkway north of Asheville
isn't just the Cerulean Warblers, it's also that the steep dropoffs at
the overlooks give the opportunity to look into the canopy at eye level
and see, yes, Ceruleans, but lots of other warblers as well. Ceruleans
are notoriously difficult to photograph and this capture is pretty
uninspiring (they usually look much bluer).
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| Canada Warbler, Craggy Gardens |
Odds
of getting a decent shot go up exponentially when the target is an
understory species, such as this Canada Warbler. This capture stands
head-and-shoulders above most of the rest in this post.
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| Hooded Warbler, Warrior Mountain escarpment |
I wasn't as lucky with this Hooded Warbler. It was a cloudy early morning, so the light was low and he was far away.
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| Black-and-white Warbler, Warrior Mountain escarpment |
Same goes for this Black-and-white Warbler.
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| Chestnut-sided Warbler, Max Patch Road |
When
you go looking for Golden-winged Warblers in North Carolina (no easy
task, by the way; their population has declined some 98% in the state)
Chesnut-sided Warblers become the 'trash' birds you can't get away
from. No complaints here!
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| Golden-winged Warbler, Max Patch Road |
The
real deal couldn't be bothered to pose for photos...this Golden-winged
Warbler appeared to be busy trying to ensure the persistence of his
genetic line in one his species' last holdouts in North Carolina.
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| Cape May Warbler, Lake Junaluska |
One
of the handful of warblers we saw that is not a resident breeder in
North Carolina was the Cape May Warbler. This is one of those birds
that could really use a name change. It has no particularly affinity
for Cape May, New Jersey, in fact, it is relatively difficult to find one there at all. My vote would be to adopt its latin name
tigrisoma and call it the 'Tiger Warbler.' Look at those stripes and orange face!
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| waterthrush sp., Polk County |
We've worked our way from high to low and are now actually looking down on warblers.
Which
waterthrush? It looks quite white; has a broad, flaring supercilium;
and was working along the edge of a fast-flowing stream. That makes it a
Louisiana Waterthrush, right?
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| Northern Waterthrush, Polk County |
Wrong!
Closer inspection shows that it does indeed show a yellowish tinge,
dense streaking and a fine bill. I guess Northern Waterthrushes can
make use of fast-moving habitats while migrating through the mountains
(where stagnant water can be scarce), and can show that broad white
eyebrow usually associated with Louisiana. That's part of what makes
birding fun: there's always more to learn.
How
quickly spring passes us by here in the South. Most of the migrating
warblers are well to the north of us now it seems. They were few and
far between on yesterday's Chapel Hill Spring Bird Count. One
surprising exception was a beautiful male Magnolia Warbler, the 32nd
warbler species I've spotted in North Carolina this spring. That's
certainly a record for me and, heck, that's a pretty good total for a
year in this or any state.
I've heard that springtime birding at Magee Marsh in Ohio is tough to beat,
but if you want to see breeding plumage warblers without the crowds, it
might be worth looking into a well-timed trip to the Southern
Appalachians.
