It was a three warbler week-end here in Scappoose. This may not be particularly impressive to those living in areas of high warbler activity, but out here in the coastal rainforest of the Pacific Northwest, warblers are not exactly what could be called plentiful. So the sight of even one such species is generally a cause for comment.
The unseasonably cold weather with the added twist of intermittent hail showers has been pushing down a number of birds on migration to their northern breeding grounds. So it was that all three of the warblers sighted these past two days were seen in connection with passing weather fronts. The first was the Townsend’s Warbler, Dendroica townsendi, seen Saturday just after the cessation of one of the worst hailstorms I’ve ever witnessed in my forty years of living here. The bird, a male, was noted peering out of an evergreen tree behind our house.
This Townsend’s Warbler was enough for an entry into the log book – being assumed to have since moved on by this time of year. But it was the twin surprises of both Black-throated Gray, Dendroica nigrescens, and Orange-crowned Warblers, Vermivora celata, gleaning the Japanese Maple trees on our property just at the beginning of a hail shower on Sunday that really had the household talking. As they were seen in the company of a small flock of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Regulus calendula, I nearly missed them, initially thinking the black and white plumage glimpsed of the Black-throated Gray to be that of the more commonly expected Black-capped Chickadee, Poecile atricapilla. Fortunately I had the sense to take a second longer look.
As if the three warblers weren’t sufficient for an exciting bird week-end, while following the flight of the Black-throated Gray as it moved from the Japanese Maples into the more dense and native Western Hemlock forest, I noticed drab brownish-gray movement on the ground not far from me. At first I thought it was a rodent and initially couldn’t find it against the wet brown earth and stones. Looking through the bins at an area I thought a passing rodent might be hiding, I found myself eye to eye with a Swainson’s Thrush, Catharus ustulatus. The list servers have been alive for over a week now discussing when the first of this species might be expected in the area. It seems that for Scappoose, Oregon at least, April 20th is the correct answer this year.
Peace and good bird watching.
