[TN-Bird] Connecticut Warbler at Radnor (long)

Radnor Lake State Natural Area
Davidson Co.
Nashville, TN
Tues. 18 May
7-9 am

I walked along the Lake Trail from the west parking lot to Long 
Bridge, listening for CONNECTICUT and MOURNING WARBLERs.  
Instead, at the artist and teacher bench I heard and saw a male 
and female NORTHERN PARULA.  As I continued to Long Bridge, I 
met a birder from Delaware who was in town at Opryland for a 
meeting.  He complimented the TOS web site and said that he had 
been to Shelby Bottoms yesterday looking for a CONNECTICUT WARBLER, 
since they are very rare migrants in his home area.  With no 
luck there, he had tried Radnor today and already had been to 
Long Bridge.  When I met him he was headed back to the dam without 
finding one this morning.  His timing could not have been worse!

I continued in the opposite direction toward Long Bridge and as 
soon as I approached the rail fence before the bench I heard a 
partial call.  I hurried back toward the dam, but the Delaware 
birder, perhaps late for his meeting, had beaten a hasty retreat.  

I returned to the thick brush pile and had the invisible male 
CONNECTICUT WARBLER calling from 10 feet away.  He was so close 
that I could hear his soft secondary song at the end of his 
loud proclamation.  I sat down on the edge of the trail to wait.  
After tantalizing me for 5 minutes or more, he popped out the back 
chasing a female INDIGO BUNTING that had had the audacity to 
infringe on his singing soap box.  My first view of the year was 
a stunner, and his bold eyering made all 11 hairs atop my head 
stand at attention. 

The pair of NORTHERN PARULAs that I had seen earlier arrived
in the area.  The male N. PARULA sang.  Suddenly the male 
CONNECTICUT WARBLER exited the brush pile, chasing the female
N. PARULA, and I had great looks at both in the same binocular
view, just a few feet above the ground.  Again Mr. CONNECTICUT's 
adopted territory had been invaded, and he brooked no competition.

Afte perhaps 30 minutes of listening and watching, I sat down on 
the bench at Long Bridge and watched the CONNECTICUT forage in 
the open, just a few inches above the ground.  This morning was 
decadent birding at its best! 



-- 
Frank Fekel
Tennessee State University
Center of Excellence in Information Systems
330 10th Avenue North
Nashville, TN 37221 USA

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