Mead Gardens, 10/20/2012

Bay-breasted Warbler

This was a wonderful morning.  I joined the Orange Audubon Society's birdwalk at Mead Gardens, and the weather was just spectacular.  It wasn't hot, and it was sunny, and there were a fair number of birds to see. My biggest hope this morning was to photograph a Bay-breasted Warbler.  We did find and photograph one, which made my day, but we also found 9 other warbler species: Black-and-white Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Northern Parula, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler, and Yellow-throated Warbler.

Pine Warbler

I've been giving myself an education on how to distinguish Pine Warblers from fall Bay-breasted Warblers.  You can see some similarities in the above photos, but immature Pine Warblers are far less yellow, making them more similar.  I don't see color perfectly, so I need to find other ways to distinguish them.  These photos illustrate three helpful clues: the Bay-breasted Warbler has a shorter tail and overall a chunkier appearance than the Pine Warbler, as well as streaking on the back.

Yellow-throated Warbler

Other highlights were seeing both Swainson's and Gray-cheeked Thrushes, as well as Eastern Wood-Pewees and an Eastern Phoebes. The Pewees seem to be sticking around a long time, and we saw three of them.  And the Phoebes are definitely making their presence known--their calls can be heard throughout the park.

Gray-cheeked Thrush

Swainson's Thrush

Eastern Wood Pewee

Eastern Phoebe