Drive to Florida including a stop off at the old haunt of Bachman's Warblers

Orange crowned Warbler, Masters Tract Stormwater Treatment Facility, Hastings, FL, Jan 4, 2026

Yellow throated Warbler, Masters Tract Stormwater Treatment Facility, Hastings, FL, Jan 4, 2026

Common Yellowthroat, Masters Tract Stormwater Treatment Facility, Hastings, FL, Jan 4, 2026

Black and White Warbler, Jekyll Island, GA, Jan 4, 2026

Yellow rumped Warbler 'myrtle', Jekyll Island, GA, Jan 4, 2026

Palm Warbler 'western', Jekyll Island, GA, Jan 4, 2026

Bottomland forest, Congaree National Park, SC, Jan 3, 2026

I just finished a long drive down to Florida travelling through 11 states over the course of three days and got a little birding in which produced some warblers.  I left home early on the 2nd and drove most of the day to get down to Cold Harbor Battlefield outside Richmond, Virginia late in the afternoon.  The battlefield is one I have wanted to visit for awhile as my great, great grandfather fought there.  The place is serene now and I even managed to hear a couple species of warblers including Pine Warblers and Yellow rumped Warblers.  

I then spent the first night outside Petersburg before getting up before dawn to make the drive down to Congaree National Park in central South Carolina, hitting rain on and off once I got near the North Carolina/South Carolina border.  It was a bit out of the way to get to the park but I wanted to see the park as it is a great example of some intact bottomland, swampy forests and is a location that might have contained some of the last Bachman’s Warblers before its extinction (link to the search for the species after some potential sightings in 2001...Bachman's Warbler search in Congaree NP). Despite the rain there were birds around and it was nice to get out and walk for a few miles before continuing by journey south. With the rainy weather forecast to end the following day I decided to head down to the southern Georgia coast to spend the night so I could get out on Jekyll Island at dawn when the weather was forecast to be better. 

On my last day of travel down I knew I would have more time to actually get out and bird as I was staying close to Jekyll Island and would ‘only’ have a three hour trip further to arrive at my final destination in Florida. I spent about four hours on and near Jekyll Island and had my first Black and White Warbler, Orange crowned Warbler and Palm Warbler for 2026. Around eleven I started the final leg of the drive with a brief detour to a wetland areas known as Masters Tract Stormwater Treatment Facility in Florida which produced my first Yellow throated Warbler of the year.  I ended the day with half a dozen species of warblers between Georgia and Florida.