Yellow breasted Chat and Connecticut Warbler at Arcadia (and others too)

Yellow breasted Chat, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 9, 2016

Yellow breasted Chat, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 9, 2016

Connecticut Warbler (yes really), Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 9, 2016

Common Yellowthroat, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 9, 2016

Palm Warbler (western), Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 9, 2016

Magnolia Warbler, Arcadia, Northampton, MA, Sep 9, 2016

I spent a few hours at Arcadia this morning and as I was walking down the trolley line I had a Yellow breasted Chat briefly pop into view. After several minutes of looking and trying to get this notoriously skulking species to pop back out I had it call once. I then got another view of it as it sat behind some vegetation and I fired off several shots with the camera before it dropped from view once again. As I dropped the camera down and looked back up two more birds showed up at eye level just a few feet from where the chat had been...one was a Common Yellowthroat but the other was an adult male Connecticut Warbler!  The Connecticut Warbler was partially hidden from view but I got great views of it in the binoculars. My attempt at photos was less successful and I got just a few blurry shots of a gray and yellow bird. I would have been happy to get either one of these species today but getting them both one right after the other was great. Two rare warblers within just a few feet of each other...good stuff. The Yellow breasted Chat can be very tough to find in the county and this is only my third record (the other records for me occurred on Sep 9, 2014 and Sep 21, 2005). Oddly all three of my sightings of this species have occurred within a quarter mile or less of each other at Arcadia.

Yellow-breasted Chat in Plymouth



Yellow-breasted Chat, Manomet bird banding station, Aug 23, 2012

I took a trip down to Plymouth on Thursday to meet up with Ian Davies. We spent a few hours in the morning at Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences observing the bird banding occuring there. One of the birds caught that day was a Yellow breasted Chat. This was by far the best look from so close I have ever gotten of this species. This species is caught several times a year at this location but is quite rare inland in Massachusetts.

Ohio warblers and totals so far this year

Connecticut Warbler, Magee Marsh, OH, May 13, 2011
Mourning Warbler, Magee Marsh, OH, May 13, 2011

Yellow-breasted Chat, Sportman's Migratory Bird Center, OH, May 12, 2011

Canada Warbler, Magee Marsh, OH, May 11, 2011

As we come to the four week of May the vast majority of warblers have made their appearance. My recent trip to Ohio added eleven new warbler species to the year list and one to my life list. As of today I have seen 44 species of wood warblers for the year and managed photos of most of them. Here are some from my trip to Ohio.