When the sun came up Saturday morning it was obvious there had been birds moving in during the night. There were many warblers, the most numerous seemed to be Chestnut-sided, lots of Catbirds who were in full song mode along with the Common Yellowthroats. There were several Wilson's Warblers although I failed to get an image I was happy with, many Black-throated Green Warblers, Redstarts and Northern Parulas. All told I think we had 16 species of warblers for the trip, the highlight for me being a Tennessee, a bird I hadn't seen for several years.
Sunday was another rain day although the weather co-operated enough that it didn't rain at all during the night and although I didn't take an early morning walk, Mark was able to get out before the skies opened up. Things were a little less wet in the afternoon and I was able to take photos of White-winged Crossbills feeding on spruce cones at eye level. I made the mistake of putting my camera away to avoid getting it wet when we found one of the best birds of the trip - a Yellow-throated Vireo. I'm still regretting that decision. Coincidentally it was in the same location we found one in 2016.
On the way to the island we happened on a nice birding area where we found an oriole and 4 species of swallows. We liked the spot enough that we revisited it on the way home where I took photos of Red-winged Blackbirds and a pair of nesting Killdeer. I don't know whether the Killdeer was doing the broken-wing act or just pointing me in the right direction, which incidentally was back down the walking trail we had come in on. Either way I decided it was probably time to head back since Carmen had preceded me back to the vehicle in anticipation of the rest of the trip home. I'm already looking forward to doing it again in 2020.
Gray Catbird
Common Yellowthroat
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler - Female
Chestnut-sided Warbler
White-winged Crossbill
Red-winged Blackbird
Killdeer
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