First Warbler spotted! Early Spring Migration?

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MatthewK

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Good morning! Out birding yesterday, and I spotted my first warbler of the season, a female Yellow-rumped. These are usually the first to return, but I don't expect them until at least April. If migration is this early, it's going to throw off my camping trip I have planned for 2nd week in May... at this rate, there won't be any migrating birds left left to see by then.

This is a crap ID shot, just to confirm. Not going for style points on this one. There'll be plenty of YRWs here soon so I can redeem myself :cool:
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I'm going to be visiting the warbler 'spot' (where many types stop over on their way further north) in my city early this year, for sure, expecting much earlier arrivals. Cute shot!
 
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Nice! They actually overwinter in much of the US (they can eat winter berries), so these guys being as far north as Wisconsin in winter will probably be headed for far northern Canada in a month or two. I'm in PA and photographed two of them in the snow in December. They start to show up in large numbers around late April/early May up here when they're in their breeding colors, which I hope to get some photos of! Looks like they're still in their dull non-breeding plumage.
 
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Rassie said:
Since the Robins and Redwing Blackbirds have already arrived, I certainly expect an earlier migration.
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Where I live the Robins usually return in late February. They’ve been right on time this year. Haven’t seen (or heard) any Red Winged Blackbirds yet, but I’m sure they’ll be here soon. They’re usually two to three weeks behind the Robins.
 
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Not a warbler guy, but everything has their fans 😉. Seems that you need to be older with white hair to be a warbler guy, just an observation 😂. At least that there only people you ever see getting excited for them in the Mid Atlantic and the North East States.

Though if I'm bored and see some i might snap a few. For small birds for me they need to be crazy colorful like a Blue Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, things like that. For me I mostly shoot things that eat other things, raptors, fox, bear and other big mammals like bighorn sheep, elk moose
 
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EricKlees said:
Not a warbler guy, but everything has their fans 😉. Seems that you need to be older with white hair to be a warbler guy, just an observation 😂. At least that there only people you ever see getting excited for them in the Mid Atlantic and the North East States.

Though if I'm bored and see some i might snap a few. For small birds for me they need to be crazy colorful like a Blue Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, things like that. For me I mostly shoot things that eat other things, raptors, fox, bear and other big mammals like bighorn sheep, elk moose
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Hah! I'm 41 and my hair hasn't started graying yet but I find migratory songbirds including incredibly colorful warblers awesome to watch and photograph. I also love the anticipation that comes with waiting for spring migration and for the first wave of them to arrive from south/central America, then I can go out and plan my shoots where I know they'll be staying for the summer. And I love the challenge. One day I'll be one of those old white haired guys still getting excited for spring songbird migration. I don't really have access to any larger mammals where I am outside of deer, fox, and the occasional coyote, and the larger birds of prey require going to specific locations so I stick to the small little guys :) That said, I'd love to photograph more raptors and larger mammals!
 
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EricKlees said:
Not a warbler guy, but everything has their fans 😉. Seems that you need to be older with white hair to be a warbler guy, just an observation 😂. At least that there only people you ever see getting excited for them in the Mid Atlantic and the North East States.
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I was a warbler guy in the early 1980s when photography was film & manual focus. I don't recall having white hair, still don't at least on the top of my head.

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Turberticus said:
Hah! I'm 41 and my hair hasn't started graying yet but I find migratory songbirds including incredibly colorful warblers awesome to watch and photograph. I also love the anticipation that comes with waiting for spring migration and for the first wave of them to arrive from south/central America, then I can go out and plan my shoots where I know they'll be staying for the summer. And I love the challenge. One day I'll be one of those old white haired guys still getting excited for spring songbird migration. I don't really have access to any larger mammals where I am outside of deer, fox, and the occasional coyote, and the larger birds of prey require going to specific locations so I stick to the small little guys :) That said, I'd love to photograph more raptors and larger mammals!
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I'm with you.. it feels like the Super Bowl every May. Seeing my first warbler each spring is an event, it's a reward for making it through winter, and an indication that glorious warm days are ahead. I haven't been photographing them long enough to have captured my "perfect" shot of each one, so I haven't lost interest as yet.
 
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MatthewK said:
I'm with you.. it feels like the Super Bowl every May. Seeing my first warbler each spring is an event, it's a reward for making it through winter, and an indication that glorious warm days are ahead. I haven't been photographing them long enough to have captured my "perfect" shot of each one, so I haven't lost interest as yet.
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Totally agree with you. I'm counting down the days til the Louisiana Waterthrush and Yellow-throated Warblers start to arrive on territory. I know of a location about 15 mins from me that has both. They both get here around April 1st, sometimes the last week of March for the Louisiana Waterthrush, so only 3 more weeks! I'm sick of photographing backyard birds at this point lol. I only have perfect (to my eyes) shots of maybe 8-10 species so hopefully I can add some more to the portfolio this spring.
 
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Butlerkid said:
I, too, think it will be very early this year. But my 4 weeks of travel stops are already booked. It will be what it will be!
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Nice good luck! I believe the neotropical songbirds in south/central america migrate due to increasing day length and not necessarily increased temperature and/or early spring, since they spend the non-breeding season in the tropics where there aren't really any discernible seasons. The birds that overwinter in the US may show up a bit earlier though. Here's a cool article about how earlier springs impact migration timing: https://www.audubon.org/magazine/spring-2022/a-matter-timing-can-birds-keep-earlier-and
 
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I have sort of the opposite situation here in Wa. St. These Townsend's Warblers spend the Winter with me at my suet cakes and leave for their Summer nesting about now.They appear to be gone now as I haven't seen them for several days. We do have other species that show up in the Summer but only rarely to my feeders.
 
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With migration coming up, does anybody have a specific warbler species on their bucket list? Either a species they haven't seen before or haven't taken a good photo of? Hopefully this isn't too off topic! Here's mine:

Haven't seen:

Prairie Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Worm-eating Warbler


Would like a decent photo of:

American Redstart
Bay-breasted
Blackpoll
Black-and-white
Black-throated Blue
Cape may
Cerulean
Magnolia
Yellow-rumped
 
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Doug Herr said:
No offense taken, engineers like to correct the record.

BTW I didn't see a lot of white hair at Magee Marsh last year.
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Yep like i said, maybe your area, maybe mine, but i said most or majority. That certainly holds true in this area and it's not close. Gotta be 70 or 80%. Just an older guy thing. Can't correct record when that is what's observed
 
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Turberticus said:
With migration coming up, does anybody have a specific warbler species on their bucket list? Either a species they haven't seen before or haven't taken a good photo of? Hopefully this isn't too off topic! Here's mine:

Haven't seen:

Prairie Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Worm-eating Warbler


Would like a decent photo of:

American Redstart
Bay-breasted
Blackpoll
Black-and-white
Black-throated Blue
Cape may
Cerulean
Magnolia
Yellow-rumped
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Townsend's
Hermit
Orange-crowned

I'm ALWAYS looking for better photos of most warblers with the possible exception of "Audubon's" Yellow-rumped which winters in my yard.
 
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