Sunday, June 11, 2023

Mourning Warblers this spring and a look at the regiolects

Mourning Warbler, Mitch's Way, Hadley, MA, May 19, 2023
Mourning Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, May 21, 2023
Mourning Warbler, Quabbin Park, MA, May 23, 2023

I once again spent a fair amount of time in the later parts of May and into early June tracking down Mourning Warblers and getting recordings of any that I found so I could add them to the database of an ongoing study by Dr. Jay Pitocchelli from Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.  He is studying the four distinct vocalization groups (regiolects) split along geographic lines, with the four groups being as follows:  Western, Eastern, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.  Among other things he is looking at the migration routes of each regiolect.  Among the 21 individuals I had for the spring I managed to record around half with a breakdown of the regiolects posted below.

Eastern -6

Nova Scotia-2 (plus one more likely Nova Scotia)

Newfoundland-1 (plus one more likely Newfoundland)

As is typical with this skulking species photographic opportunities were rather limited and I was only able to get photos of three individuals 

As noted above I had representative of the three possible regiolects here this spring and I have included lists with at least one example of each.

Eastern regiolects May 19

Nova Scotia regiolect  May 21

Newfoundland regiolect May 19

I would encourage any and all to record Mourning Warblers heard during spring migration and then send the recording to Dr Jay at the following email address: JPitocch@Anselm.Edu

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