Evert Trail 6/7--Worm-eating Warbler

A great place to hear, but not necessarily see some of the harder to find warblers is the Dot and Brooks Evert Memorial Trail on Ong's Hat Road in Burlco. It is densely wooded and through it winds Stop The Jade Run. I love these names. There is a boardwalk covered in chicken wire for traction, because often the trail is under Stop The Jade Run. Today it was relatively dry. I had two target warblers, one of which (Kentucky Warbler) I knew was a long shot. The first warbler I came across was a Prothonotary Warbler just where the boardwalk starts--there's a nest box in the stream. I heard the bird and then it very cooperatively flew onto a branch right above my head. It was the last warbler I saw there. 

Ovenbirds were of course calling all over the place and of course all went unseen. At one spot which looked like every other spot on the trail I stopped and heard Worm-eating Warbler. It is a distinct trill, halfway between a Chipping Sparrow and a Pine Warbler and I suspect that lot of WEWA reports are one of the other two. I've posted a video with the bird's song (for some peculiar reason this interface doesn't have a way to post audio). I would have loved to have eyeballed the bird, but as you can see, the vegetation is pretty dense, and the bird would not emerge from its thicket. Still, this is the kind of thing that gets me excited at 6:48 in the morning. (As an aside, I've always thought "Worm-eating Warbler" sounds like something Yosemite Sam would call Bugs Bunny in a Looney Tunes Cartoon--"Why you danged Worm-eating Warbler you, I'll get you yet!")

Because the footing is precarious on much of the trail and one misstep puts you in Stop The Jade Run, it is not a place to look up and scan the trees, so almost of all the birding is by ear. I was also relieved to see that one of the branches of the trail was closed off--this meant less chance of me getting lost as it forced me to walk a loop of 1.837 miles (eBird), though it did rule out going to the observation tower that is somewhere in there. 

Other warblers I heard were a couple of Hooded Warblers, an apparently infrequent (according to eBird again) American Redstart, and a Louisiana Waterthrush. Except for the redstart, all the others are breeders in those woods. 

If I knew the place better and was a better ear birder, I'd have a bigger list, but I got what I'd hoped for and managed to come out dry and unscathed. 

22 species
Wood Duck  3
Mourning Dove  2
Great Blue Heron  1
Red-bellied Woodpecker  3
Hairy Woodpecker  2
Eastern Wood-Pewee  1
Great Crested Flycatcher  2
White-eyed Vireo  3
Red-eyed Vireo  1
Tufted Titmouse  6
White-breasted Nuthatch  3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher  2
Carolina Wren  4
Eastern Towhee  1
Ovenbird  6
Worm-eating Warbler  1
Louisiana Waterthrush  1
Black-and-white Warbler  1
Prothonotary Warbler  1
Hooded Warbler  2
American Redstart  1     
Northern Cardinal  4