Yellow-throated Warbler continues to survive the Holmes County winter

  • By Bruce Glick
  • January 17, 2012
  • 278
                        
Yellow-throated Warbler continues to survive the Holmes County winter Columnist Bruce Glick summarizes happenings in the local birding world. This week Bruce writes about some unusual January birds. Find out more in the "Gone Birding" column. One of the most unusual local birding stories involves a Yellow-throated Warbler that continues to visit a number of feeders a few miles northwest of Mt. Hope. Over the years there have been five or six records of these beautiful warblers during the winter, when they should be far to the south. However, this particular bird (we assume it is the same bird) first showed up during the winter of 2009-2010 and returned last winter and again this winter. During that first winter, the bird was seen at a number of residences in the same area, making it difficult to see it at any given time. I stopped by several times but not at the right place at the right time. Still, the bird continued to be seen throughout the cold, snowy months. Folks were really surprised when the warbler showed up again the second winter. By this year it wasn't quite so surprising when their special winter visitor showed up again. Last week I stopped at one of the places where the warbler visits. They informed me that currently it seemed to prefer the feeders at one of the neighbors. I drove over there and talked to the family who said that they had been seeing the Yellow-throated Warbler regular, so I waited in the car with my camera and binoculars. After a quiet hour, the warbler flew in and stayed for a few minutes. It ate the peanut-butter concoction that seemed to be a hit with many of the other birds. From what I could tell, the bird looked very healthy. The bright yellow throat certainly stood out in the winter light. That same morning Robert Hershberger and I took a walk from his place to some weedy fields where he had been seeing some interesting winter sparrows. We walked back and forth looking for birds and eventually flushed one lone sparrow. It turned out to be the Grasshopper Sparrow that Robert had seen at least twice before in almost the same part of the field. There are only a few records of wintering Grasshopper Sparrows in our area. Vast areas of the fields had no birds at all but we finally came to a corner where there was lots of activity. Moving slowly we approached the birds and were rewarded with close views of around 10 Savannah Sparrows, one lone Field Sparrow and lots of Song Sparrows. The Grasshopper Sparrow had also joined this little flock, all of which were eating seeds from the weeds in the field. What a nice outing on a winter morning. At Clear Fork Reservoir at dawn on January 15, John Herman and I waited for the light to get strong enough to see the many gulls standing on the ice. Eventually we could make out an adult Greater Black-backed Gull among the many Herring and Ring-billed Gulls. This was the first time that I have seen one of these distinctive gulls away from Lake Erie. John Herman and Gary Cowell have been doing a great job documenting the unusual gulls and waterfowl that stop at Clear Fork. There have been reports locally of a few Common Redpolls and a fly-by Snowy Owl at Berlin. Keep watching for these and other winter rarities. Good birding! Bruce Glick birderbruce@yahoo.com 330-317-7798


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