Audubon’s Warbler and Others - Jim Block Photography

It is very unusual to see a warbler this time of year in the Upper Valley. It is extremely rare to see an Audubon’s Warbler any time of year on the east coast. The Audubon’s subspecies of the yellow-rumped warbler is a western bird. The yellow rumped seen around here is almost always a Myrtle.

According to George Clark, “this seems likely to be the first ever sighting of Audubon’s Warbler in Hanover. Pam Hunt has been credited with sighting a male in Lebanon on October 16, 1998.” George also tentatively suggested based only on a few photos from December 2, that “this bird is a male because of the brightness of the colors and one hatched this year because of the black blotches rather than complete streaks on the breast.”

According to eBird, Audubon’s Warblers (Setophaga coronata ssp. auduboni) breed mainly in the mountains of the western U.S. and into British Columbia. This can be seen clearly in the map below from iNaturalist that shows Audubon’s Warbler sightings. Only a few of the sightings on the east coast were in the last decade.

Myrtle Warblers (Setophaga coronata ssp. coronata) breed from the eastern U.S. across Canada to Alaska. Myrtle Yellow-rumped Warblers have a white throat in contrast to the yellow throat of the Audubon’s.

I practiced “five mile birding” the last two weeks. All of the photos in this blog post were taken within a 5 mile drive of our home in Etna.

Angela spotted an Audubon’s Warbler in her yard December 2, correctly identified it, and informed a few folks who asked me to try for some photos for confirmation of this rarity. I arrived shortly before dark and took some photos. Then I went back in slightly better light. The pair of photos below are from December 2 and 3.

It was coming to her feeders.

At one point it shared them with a beautiful Red-bellied Woodpecker. A wonderful red, yellow, white, and black scene.

It is certainly unusual to see a warbler in snow. Here it is hopping around Angela’s yard.

And 30 minutes later, another hop.

Here are ten more photos of the Audubon’s Warbler.

FU656E3E-Audubons-Warbler-landing-on-a-branch

I photographed other species with and without snow in the last two weeks in our yard and within 5 miles of our home. Here are some of the photos.

Northern Cardinal

I spotted a Cardinal and White-throated Sparrow together in Angela’s yard several times. Believe it or not, these two photos are from different days.

I’ve never seen a Cardinal in our yard.

Blue Jays

Not a species I normally seek out to photograph, I took a number of photos of Blue Jays while waiting patiently for the Audubon’s Warbler to appear.

Dark-eyed Junco

A rather plain sparrow, the Dark-eyed Junco is more interesting photographically in flight.

This one sat still for almost four minutes while a Cardinal flashed by in the background.

And then it flew.

Mourning Doves

Downy Woodpeckers

Hairy Woodpeckers

I have trouble sorting hairy from downy woodpeckers in photos of them flying, but I believe the pair above are downy and the pair below are hairy. I can tell that all these are male because of the red on their heads.