Tim, thanks for all of your careful thought about this bird. My personal
reaction to first-fall F BT Blues is usually “what a strange looking vire….oh."
These sites need more coverage and I will be creeping around the northern Curry
sites this weekend.
This year we definitely have an arrival date for Palm Warbler: Oct 4. At least
five or six that day all along the coast.
By the way, Stephan Nance and I had a Scrub Jay at the motel at Arizona Beach
when we were there a couple of weeks back. My first there. Usually stuffed
with Stellers, and was.
Alan Contreras
acontrer56@xxxxxxxxx
NOTE: Owing to my very heavy workload and travel schedule through December 5,
my response to your messages may take up to a week.
On Oct 6, 2015, at 1:28 PM, Tim Rodenkirk <timrodenkirk@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am not sure anyone is going to end up looking for the mystery warbler (if
we were closer to Portland there would be a line at the parking area, on the
south coast many "good" birds never even get chased like say, Smith's
Longspur) but I think I can eliminate a few species:
The call was wrong for Arctic Warbler (not buzzy like a dipper) nor were
their wing bars that I noticed.
Dusky Warbler is not yellow below and the bird I saw was drab grayish
olive-green above-neither sound right for a Dusky.
Tennessee Warbler would not have such a prominent supercilium, should have
white undertail coverts, and I don't remember them having drab olive-colored
upperparts- more a brighter green.
That leaves me with first fall female BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER. The first
fall female is all drab yellow below (including the undertail coverts), has
the grayish-olive color above, no wing bar (not sure if it is sometimes or
all the time), and a prominent supercilium. What bothered me most about the
bird in question was its feeding behavior. I have seen several BT Blues in
Oregon and they have all been higher up in the canopy- at least head height
and higher. However, I looked at the older warbler book and read that they
normally nest within three feet of the ground and forage low- all news to me.
Perhaps the feeding I saw low wasn't all that unusual for Black-throated
Blues?
Anyhow, I think by process of elimination it has to be a Black-throated Blue.
A great bird for Curry nonetheless with only a few previous records. Also,
as I remember, early October is traditionally the best time to find this
species in Oregon. Seems like it all adds up. Thanks everyone for your
helpful comments!
Terry Wahl called me today, here is his report from the family ranch near
Cape Blanco:
WESTERN SCRUB-JAY at the barn where the Dickcissels were seen originally
(10/1) on same day (they are not regular on the south coast north of Ophir)
2- PALM WARBLERS on 10/4 when everyone else reported them- he said they are
still around
one DICKCISSEL reappeared today so at least the one is still around
Knute Andersson had a LARK SPARROW at his place SW of Langlois on 10/4
(yesterday).
Merry migration!
Tim Rodenkirk
Coos Bay
