June 26, 2022 - Warblers - 3

Here’s my third set of warbler photos. This Blackpoll Warbler was seen in a dead tree right by our dock at our northern Minnesota lake home. It’s not a rare species, but this is the first time I have photographed one. Notable field marks are its black cap, white cheeks, and yellow edges to its wing feathers.

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Here’s a less cluttered photo of the Blackpoll Warbler. It would only be passing through Minnesota on its way to nesting territory in northern Canada.

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Chestnut-sided Warblers are quite common, and they do nest in our woods during the summer.

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This is a female, a male would have more black on his face, and the rusty stripe would extend much farther along his side.

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I have been trying to learn to distinguish the Chestnut-sided Warbler’s song from the songs of other warblers that nest here, but I still haven’t mastered that.

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This is a Mourning Warbler. Northeast Minnesota is at the southern edge of its nesting territory so it could stay here for the summer. However, I’ve only seen that happen once in the 34 years we have been here.

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This is not a warbler, but I’m including it this week because it is the source of great interest to the Minnesota birding community. This is one of two Abert’s Towhees that suddenly appeared about a week ago, in a small park in Grand Rapids, MN. They were first reported to Minnesota birders by my birding friend Shawn Conrad. These birds are found year-round only in Arizona, southern California, and southern Nevada. They are not known to travel very far from this home territory, so these two birds are WAY out of their normal range. This would be the first reported sighting of Abert’s Towhee in Minnesota, but there is speculation that they did not get here on their own. The Minnesota Ornithologists Union (MOU) will make the decision about whether these birds are legitimate Minnesota sightings. If someone brought them here, they couldn’t be counted as a true Minnesota sighting.

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