By Mary Alice Hayward
Mary Alice Hayward by no means thought a lot about birds till after retiring in 2021 and waking up one spring day to a hen attacking her eating room home windows. Curiosity led her to seek out out what it was: a Nice Crested Flycatcher. With that, her eyes opened as much as uncover and fall headfirst, deep down into the birding world. Mary Alice lives and birds on the Outer Banks barrier islands on the Atlantic Ocean, North Carolina, USA. She travels usually and birds day by day, regardless of the place she goes. Her favourite birds are the black and white ones.
The migrants are on the transfer proper now, leaving the large north and heading all the way down to the large south, passing by my house within the Outer Banks barrier islands of North Carolina in the USA. We welcome all of them, particularly the warblers, who’re so colourful, filled with vitality, and spirit. These migrants are offering a welcome break from the standard monochrome palette of birds resident right here, with a couple of exceptions. It occurs identical to that! All of the sudden, in the future in mid-August, you see a flash of maximum yellow, after months of beige, cream, white…yawn. You then see a flash of lime, blue, inexperienced, or orange. These dots of colour bounce across the marsh bushes, treetops, and tall grasses. Tough to seek out with binoculars and even more durable to {photograph} nicely, they’re palm-sized little bullets of velocity and colour who seek for meals day by day to maintain their vitality for the hundreds of miles they may fly. Warbler season is right here!
Migrants are welcome within the Outer Banks. We’re in the course of the Atlantic Flyway, and we now have an extended shoreline with some good, protected, and diverse habitat. Our migration seasons occur within the fall and spring. Within the spring, we begin seeing the primary few warblers in early April, however issues actually warmth up by late April into Might. Mid-August initiates the beginning of fall migration, however it actually isn’t sizzling till mid-September, when waves of warblers move by on their method to Central and South America. Our skilled birders inform me that migrating warblers don’t sing within the fall, so that you don’t hear them such as you do within the spring. So visible recognizing is essential, they usually like to remain up excessive or hidden within the mid-canopy of bushes and bushes.
Our migrating warblers are concentrated primarily in a single sizzling spot, appropriately named by eBird because the Duck Park Boardwalk. Situated on the Currituck Sound on the sliver of barrier island alongside the Atlantic, this sizzling spot is within the city of Duck, North Carolina. Loads of native birders maintain vigils for the warblers as they arrive by, noting the waves of birds and timing for every species.
This fall, we noticed our first warbler, the Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) flashing by the Sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) within the first days of August on the Duck Park Boardwalk hotspot.
Prothonotary Warbler
Shortly after, a number of Yellow Warblers ( Setophaga petechia) arrived, peeking by our budding Baccharis bushes within the marsh.
Yellow Warbler
By early September, our warbler selection expanded to incorporate Black-and-white Warbler (Mniotilta varia), American Redstart (Setophaga ruticilla), Prairie Warbler (Setophaga discolor), Yellow-throated Warbler (Setophaga dominica), and Northern Parula (Setophaga americana).
Black and White Warbler
American Redstart
Prairie Warbler
Yellow-throated Warbler
Northern Parula
A number of bonus warblers, not generally seen throughout migration, have additionally come by. The Chestnut-Sided Warbler (Setophaga pensylvanica) is one such magnificence that used our coastal flyway, fairly than the extra inland route, to please us.
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Because the month wanes and October arrives, we dread the arrival of that one migrant warbler that signifies migration is over – the Yellow-rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata). This warbler winters within the Outer Banks, and it turns into the ever present warbler of our hen lists and photographs all through winter. Welcome, Yellow-rumped, you might have arrived at your winter house, and whereas there are not any others behind you, we each know all we have to do is wait till spring.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
All Images by MA Hayward
