The weather outlook for most of this week was looking rather bleak, but today’s weather was supposed to clear and it’s prime season for spring migrants, so Jeanine and I took advantage of a window of opportunity to head up to Garret Mountain. We weren’t able to get up there early due to the need to bring my car in for repairs, but once we arrived at the reservation it was quite nice. I wouldn’t call it fallout conditions, but all day long we were kept very busy and by the end of the day I ended up with 21 species of warblers while Jeanine had 22. Somehow I missed out on Blackpoll Warbler, which was abundant just two days ago here in Ocean County, but Jeanine only saw two of them at Garret, while I missed them both. It was another special day for us at Garret, and there’s just something magical about breaking that 20-species barrier.
Here’s the list of warblers that I saw, which includes most of the tough ones. I missed out on relatively easy species such as Pine, Prairie, and Blackpoll Warblers.
Ovenbird 25
Worm-eating Warbler 1
Northern Waterthrush 7
Blue-winged Warbler 1
Black-and-white Warbler 11
Tennessee Warbler 2
Nashville Warbler 6
Common Yellowthroat 12
American Redstart 17
Cape May Warbler 1
Northern Parula 18
Magnolia Warbler 9
Bay-breasted Warbler 3
Blackburnian Warbler 2
Yellow Warbler 2
Chestnut-sided Warbler 4
Black-throated Blue Warbler 6
Yellow-rumped Warbler 11
Black-throated Green Warbler 5
Canada Warbler 5
Wilson’s Warbler 1
A Northern Parula that is about to have a mid-day bath.
A cooperative Black-throated Green Warbler.