Monhegan Migration Report No. 2: Yellow-breasted Chat
Black-and-white Warbler / © Bryan Pfeiffer
TO PARAPHRASE THE FOLK SINGER DONOVAN, yellow is the color of Monhegan’s birds — in the morning, when we rise … in the morning, when we rise.
The new yellow Sunday afternoon was Yellow-breasted Chat (sorry, no photo — so you’ll have to settle for this Black-and-white Warbler) just south of Burnt Head. It blended well with the Yellow-headed Blackbird, which has been marauding around the island in the company of about two dozen Common Grackles (and a few European Starlings). They’re perching high on the spruce here.
Ruth and I have also bumped into a few warbler patches, bringing the all-important warbler total to 14 species after our first full day here. You know you’re having a great day during migration when Cape May Warblers outnumber Yellow-rumped Warblers. That’ll change soon enough, but for now we’re enjoying this place without the swarms of “Rumps.”
Below is our list so far. (We’ve missed a few.) Read all the 2015 Monhegan posts. And here’s some Donovan.
- American Black Duck
- Mallard
- Common Eider
- Ring-necked Pheasant
- Common Loon
-
Philadelphia Vireo / © Bryan Pfeiffer
Northern Gannet
- Bald Eagle
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Black Guillemot
- Laughing Gull
- Herring Gull
- Great Black-backed Gull
- Mourning Dove
- Ruby-throated Hummingbird
- Belted Kingfisher
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Northern Flicker
- Merlin
- Least Flycatcher
- Eastern Kingbird
- Philadelphia Vireo
- Red-eyed Vireo
- Blue Jay
- American Crow
- Common Raven
- Black-capped Chickadee
-
Yellow-headed Blackbird / © Bryan Pfeiffer
Red-breasted Nuthatch
- House Wren
- Carolina Wren
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- American Robin
- Gray Catbird
- Brown Thrasher
- European Starling
- Cedar Waxwing
- Black-and-white Warbler
- Tennessee Warbler
- Nashville Warbler
- Common Yellowthroat
- American Redstart
- Cape May Warbler
- Northern Parula
- Magnolia Warbler
- Blackburnian Warbler
- Yellow Warbler
- Black-throated Blue Warbler
- Palm Warbler
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
- Black-throated Green Warbler
- White-throated Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Northern Cardinal
- Rose-breasted Grosbeak
- Bobolink
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Yellow-headed Blackbird
- Common Grackle
- Pine Siskin
- American Goldfinch
All right, Bryan! You’ve got your Blackburnian this year! 🙂
And more than that, Bill. See you soon!
Hi Bryan, You’re going to think I may be color blind but that little Philadelphia vireo looks like the bird that was so attached to me last spring, although the one attached it self to me was a little more green…I had said it was emerald green but now that I see this bird I realize I should have said “sap” as in the Windsor Newton Water Color Series, or spring green. Do they have a spring coat that tends to be a little more brilliant?
jayne ollin
Hi Jayne, Possible but unlikely. They’re REALLY rare in Vermont in the spring. More common out here in the fall. They can actually be duller in spring. Go figure!