Second wave of warblers descends

Despite abysmal migration conditions the next wave of warblers has trickled into Southern New England. Listen for four new voices in the woods and marshes.

Black-throated Green Warbler: typically in stands of conifers or deep woods singing a repetitive "ZEE-ZEE-ZEE-zoo-ZEE" or "trees-TREES-murmuring-TREES" in which the ALL CAPS represent a higher pitch than the low caps. 


Northern Parula: Small, busy warbler found in flowering maple and oak trees in lots of cemeteries or parks. Song is a buzzy, rising sounds like someone hand cranking an electric motor. 


Yellow Warbler: Common to water edge, pond and river habitats listen for the "sweet-sweet-sweet-I'm so sweet" song of this tenacious all yellow warbler. 

Common Yellow-throat: these tenacious marshland birds have returned to the cattail wetlands around southern New England. Listen for a rolling, loud and repetitive "wichity-wichity-wichity". Raccoon mask and bright yellow chest and belly these little warblers are relentlessly elusive, singing just feet from your face but buried among the reeds. Knowing their song is a crucial. 

Good weather - Bad birding

New England has received a long streak of steady, high pressure with north-east winds, seasonably warm temperatures and almost no precipitation. In short blue skies and cool breezes prefect weather for some spring bird watching… or is it? For these few weeks in May New England sees passage of millions of songbird migrants making their way north to the boreal forests and taiga of Canada where they will be breed during the summer months. This short passage is a like watching the marathon for 6 hours just to see the leader pack run by in the blink of an eye. 

These tiny birds may fly as many up to 1500 miles in just a few weeks from places as far as central Argentina. Threats along the way include the lure of windows and light up skyscrapers, natural predators like hawks as well as domestic predators like house cats. Weather also plays a huge factor in the life or death of these birds. A spring storm or cold snap, excessive heat or a head wind can be the difference in success and failure. It will come as no surprise that a head wind is the most prevalent weather obstacle. For anyone who has ever tried to run, bike, even walk into the wind you will know it is harder and more energy is used than when moving with the wind. During the spring birds will use a southerly tail wind (wind blowing from south to the north) to aid in this long journey. When the wind is coming from the north “northerly wind” birds will often reroute or wait for a change in wind direction.

In New England a north or northwesterly wind occurs when a high pressure system pushes a low pressure system out to sea. High pressure systems are not only the large “H’s” on the weather map they are also associated with cool, dry weather on the ground, and cloudless, clear blue skies and sunshine above – the archetypal “nice day.” April showers bring May flowers and spring as a whole is often a drizzly month. Days of off and on spitting light rain coat the flowers and tree buds. This type of warm, humid air is typical of a low pressure accompanied by a south wind – good migration conditions. What we've seen this spring (April into early May 2013) is a stationary high pressure sitting just west of New England. This steady high pressure has meant clear skies, no rain, and a near consistent northeast wind – terrible conditions for migrants. So let's pray for some humid air, light drizzle and a breeze from the south and on it will come the birds! 

First wave of warblers

The first group of warblers to be watching for appear as early as late March and will hang around well into May (and even breed in parts of the region). Perhaps it's fitting that this first group is a drab little bunch as if holding out the vermilion, blaze orange, and hot yellow for the full burst of gregarious spring. The first band of  cool weather warblers to look for are:

Palm Warbler: tail bobbing, often low on the forest floor to just above head height.

Pine Warbler: The geneirc warbler... yellow breast and belly, wing bars, nothing out of the ordinary. 

Black-and-White Warbler: climbs up and down the trunks of trees like a nuthatch.

Yellow-rumped Warbler: these busy, common warblers like to fly out from a branch and catch bugs from the air. They have droopy wings that hang below their body and a notch in the tail. Listen too for the common "chup" call uttered to other near by "rumpies."

Waves of Warblers: A Phenologcal Guide to New England Songbirds

Migrants arrive in New England like passing waves. The species that winter closer to New England (further north) in places like Northern Mexico, Texas, Florida, and Virginia have a shorter distance to travel to get here so naturally arrive earlier than their long distance cousins from South America and the Lesser Antilles. Knowing to predict what species are in each of these waves is a trick of long time bird watchers. Traditionally utilizing their own notebooks from year to year this process is often made into a personal eye-spy game or "first of the year" though we can now utilize online forums or explore data on e-bird to learn about timing in our area without having a personal memory. 

The timing of things is a fascinating topic and the study of timing in the natural world is called phenology (not to be confused with the creepy and racially slanted, pseudo science of phRenology). I'd encourage everyone to keep a careful journal of "first of the years" or as my mentor Nancy called it "signs of Spring". Consider the first Red-winged blackbird, calling Woodcock, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Spring pepper, crocus, Sugar maple bud, Black-and-white Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, or any other sign of spring that most warms your heart. 

For the next few weeks I will be posting brief lists of the species to be looking for (and studying in your field guide and audio tapes) as spring comes crashing down on our New England shores.