During spring time a virtual river of birds migrates from Mexico, and Central
and South America to the eastern United States and Canada. These neotropical
migrants take advantage of the mild weather and abundant food in northern
latitudes during the breeding season, and escape the northern winters by flying
far to the south. Some of the most exciting avian migrants are the wood
warblers, tiny gems that are hardly noticed by those who are not birders. The
arrival of most of these migrants in Florida is unpredictable since the bulk of
the movement is from the Yucatan Peninsula to the northern Gulf states and they
land on Florida shores primarily when there are strong westerly winds. These
tiny birds also migrate mainly at night, are generally silent, and are often
unseen even when present in significant numbers.
We live on Manasota Key, a barrier island in Charlotte County, FL, which is
well situated to receive migrating birds blown by westerly winds from their
normal northerly track from Mexico. In early April we noticed some neotropical
migrants such as summer tanagers, orchard orioles and prothonotary warblers
that were primarily interested in eating our ripe white mulberries. But in
middle April the strangler figs on some trees were ripe and these are very
attractive to hungry migrant birds. On the morning of April 18 while emptying
the garbage, we noticed some warblers in one of our large stranglers and
starting watching more carefully. We also have two dripping water baths that
attract thirsty birds. We observed 31 species of birds including the
extraordinary number (for a residential yard) of 11 types of warblers
(ovenbird, worm eating, black and white, Tennessee, Nashville, common
yellowthroat, northern parula, blackpoll, black throated blue, palm and
prairie). The day before we also saw a very unusual Lawrence's warbler, which
is a backcross hybrid between the blue winged and golden winged warblers.
The attached photo of an adult male blackpoll warbler was taken in our gardenia
shrub next to a water drip. This cryptic warbler is a species that has an
unusual migratory pattern from northern South America directly across the Gulf
of Mexico, heading for boreal breeding sites in northern Canada and Alaska. Its
unusual yellow/orange legs help to identify it in the fall when it loses its
distinctive breeding plumage. We are so thrilled to see these wonderful birds
up close and personal when in VA near our farm they are hardly visible high in
the forest trees.
The yard bird checklist can be viewed online at
http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S29050766 ;
Strangely enough if you passed by our yard on busy N Beach Rd while we were in
the throes of warbler-mania, craning our necks to look high into a large
strangler fig, you would have seen and heard little. This is a remarkable
ephemeral phenomenon seen by the few who understand the excitement generated by
"April madness," when migrating warblers occasionally visit us and thrill us
with their colors and unusual life histories.
Bill Dunson
Englewood, FL
Attachment:
Blalckpoll male FL yard 4.17.16 Bill Dunson IMG_2652 aa.JPG
Description: JPEG image
