Baldpate Mt 5/25--KENTUCKY WARBLER

Originally, Mike & I planned to go to Cape May today, where there is a Swainson's Warbler in a restricted trail in Cape May Point SP that had been unrestricted to allow birders to see this southern rarity. It would have been a life bird for both of us. Unfortunately, the unrestricted restricted trail got restricted again on Wednesday, so that put the kibosh on that idea. You're slow, you blow.

The only other warbler that visits New Jersey that I hadn't seen is often reported at Baldpate Mt in Mercer County. It was Mike's idea this morning to go there instead, since it is a warbler hot spot. I've been to Baldpate only a few times and each time never found my life bird there. I don't know many birders in Mercer and from what I understand they tend to be a little protective of their hot spots, so there was no one I could ask for directions, instructions, or advice. It's a big place and little bird.

Yellow-throated Vireo
Point, shoot, get a little lucky

Luckily, today just as we arrived, I ran into a birder I know who works in the area--he lives across the river in Pennsylvania. He told us that there were two Yellow-throated Vireos just beyond the parking lot on the road up to the top of the mountain (which would be a hill anywhere else). Yellow-throated Vireo is always a good bird to find (I'd already heard one in Mexico last month) but what I really wanted to know was where the KENTUCKY WARBLER was.  I'd always been led to believe that this warbler was found in a little spot high on one of the trails, but my friend told us that you could find them along the paved road once you got away from the invasive plant species. With that knowledge, Mike & I set out.

The nickname for Yellow-throated Vireo is "thirty eight" because its song consists of two notes that sound like "three eight!" Almost immediately upon stepping on the road we heard that song ringing out and looked up to find two vireos in the foliage above our heads. I pointed my camera in the general direction of the rapidly flitting birds and actually captured an image of one.

Then, Mike heard the Kentucky Warbler, whose song consists of two notes rapidly repeated--teedle teedle teedle might be a good transcription. I don't like getting a life bird by ear unless it's an owl or nightjar, but at least with this bird it sang constantly and loudly. We looked in the bushes alongside the road for a long time but never even saw movement. A few hours later, on our way back down the trail, in the same spot, the Kentucky Warbler was still singing and still out of sight.

But I got my lifer. It's official if not totally satisfactory. BVD (better view desired) is really AVD (and view desired).

Baldpate, because of the dense foliage and tall trees, is a place where you better accept ear birding because finding the birds up in the canopy is next door to impossible. I did pretty well, only missing the Prairie Warbler that Mike heard. I was able to hear Blackpoll Warbler (one year Bob Auster made me think he was existing in an alternate universe as he raised his finger each time he heard on of about 25 Blackpolls along the road we were walking on) and Black-throated Green Warbler, along with the easier ones like Pine Warbler and Ovenbird. We did actually see some warblers and other passerines too, but a large portion of my list today is "heard." Of course, some birds are so common that you don't even bother to look for them.
49 species
Black Vulture 3
Turkey Vulture 4
Cooper's Hawk 1
Red-tailed Hawk 1
Mourning Dove 2
Chimney Swift 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker 3 Heard
Downy Woodpecker 1 Heard
Northern Flicker 2 Heard
Eastern Wood-Pewee 6 Heard
Eastern Phoebe 1
Great Crested Flycatcher 1 Heard
White-eyed Vireo 1 Heard
Yellow-throated Vireo 2 at bottom of road
Blue-headed Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 1 Heard
Blue Jay 1 Heard
Carolina Chickadee 2 Heard
Tufted Titmouse 1 Heard
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
House Wren 2
Carolina Wren 3 Heard
Veery 3 Heard
Wood Thrush 15 Heard
American Robin 6
Gray Catbird 30
Cedar Waxwing 5
Ovenbird 10 Heard
Blue-winged Warbler 2 Saw one very distantly as it was singing, heard the other
KENTUCKY WARBLER 1 Heard
Common Yellowthroat 5
Hooded Warbler 2 Heard
American Redstart 1
Yellow Warbler 5
Blackpoll Warbler 2 Heard
Pine Warbler 1 Heard
Black-throated Green Warbler 1 Heard
Chipping Sparrow 2
Field Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 1
Eastern Towhee 5
Scarlet Tanager 1 Heard
Northern Cardinal 3
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 6
Baltimore Oriole 2 At top of the "mountain"
Brown-headed Cowbird 2 Top of the hill
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 1

Baltimore Oriole