By John Pogacnik, Biologist
A singing Kirtland’s warbler was found at Lake Erie Bluffs this morning along the trail west of the Lane Road parking lot. It was just east of a large open area along the trail with a bat house, a couple hundred yards west of the shelter.
Kirtland’s warbler is one of our rarest warblers. They winter in the Bahamas and nest in Michigan and their migration takes them through Ohio. It is estimated that their entire population consists of less than 2,000 singing males. Believe it or not, that is up from their population estimate of 167 singing males in 1974 and 1987, so even though they pass through here, they are hard to find.
Kirtland's warbler
Today’s bird was identified by its loud clear song. It's fairly distinctive call sounds like “Flip-lip-lip-lip-tip-tip-chilip.” Familiarizing yourself with their song is a key to finding them because they are often hard to spot in their preferred brushy habitats. The bird was observed only twice during the 15 minute observation. It is a medium-sized warbler that is gray above and lemon yellow below with black streaking on the chest. The key to identifying it is that it wags its tail constantly. Most warblers do not wag their tails. Only palm warblers and prairie warblers do. If you think you see one, make sure you see the tail wagging. Today's bird was seen about 100 yards west of another Kirtland’s warbler that I saw at Lake Erie Bluffs a few years ago.
Also on the trail today was a golden-winged warbler and at least two yellow-breasted chats. Remember, yellow-breasted chats are no longer considered warblers. They are in a different family, Icteriidae.
We should see a lot of warblers and other migrants in the next week as long as we get south winds. The current forecast is showing a roller coaster of temperatures over the next several days, so watch the weather daily.
Over the next week, we should see a lot of the early warblers such as yellow-rumped, yellow, Nashville, palm, black-throated green, northern waterthrush and ovenbird. Other migrants will include red-headed woodpecker, ruby-throated hummingbird, least flycatcher, eastern kingbird, various thrushes, scarlet tanager, Baltimore oriole, rose-breasted grosbeak, and white-crowned and white-throated sparrows.
Red-headed woodpecker
There have been a lot of new migrants showing up over the last few days. The strong south winds have brought in a steady flow. A variety of shorebirds have been seen including American avocet and willet. There have been some hawk flights with sharp-shinned hawks and a variety of the buteos. Songbird variety and numbers have increased greatly. Large numbers of white-throated sparrows have been seen as well as chipping, white-crowned, swamp, and Lincoln’s. We are seeing a nice variety of warblers with more than 20 species seen locally. There have been a lot of migrating blue jays and goldfinches with some siskins amongst the goldfinch flocks.
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Birding at Lake Metroparks
Photos by John Pogacnik, Lake Metroparks Biologist