ML45699501
Contributor
Date
Location
- Age
- Not specified
- Sex
- Not specified
Observation details
Yeeeeaaahhh!!! Seen at the Lighthouse, then down at North Landing. Photographed at extremely close range. These birds are NOT difficult to see (on SEFI). September 14th, 2010 was a good wave day on Southeast Farallon Island. Over 150 individual Passerine migrants, including about 10 individuals of several species of eastern warblers, arrived on the Island. While at Shark Watch at the Lighthouse at about 12:30 PM, I noticed a larger, olive-green warbler sitting on a rock. After I got it in my binoculars, I was able to watch it for less than a second before it ducked behind a rock. I could see that it was an Oporornis Warbler with a bold eye-ring, but for some reason my first impression was that it was a Mourning Warbler, and announced it to the other observers over my hand-held radio. I refound the bird a few moments later, and was able to quickly see that I was mistaken, and that the bird was, in fact, a Connecticut Warbler. I then radioed back down about its correct identity and started taking photos of the bird. After about three minutes, a small flock of warblers flew past, heading to the south. The Connecticut Warbler looked at them, called once, then bolted off the Island, joining the flock. I watched them for as long as I could, then radioed down that I had lost the bird. Oscar was super bummed. About half an hour later, I noticed a large, green, chunky warbler duck around the side of the Lighthouse. Sure that it was the Connecticut Warbler returning to the Lighthouse, I was not surprised when it came walking around the corner. I snapped some more photos of it, as it worked in the Plantago growing around the edge of the Lighthouse and walked around on the concrete pad. It then moved down the ridge towards North Chute, and I lost sight of it. Several hours later, Jim found the bird at the North Landing boathouse, where Oscar was able to have excellent looks at it, finally. A while after that, I wandered over on PM area search, and had my third look of the day at the bird. It was extremely cooperative, so I sat down on a rock and watched the bird walking around, eating flies. After about 5 minutes I decided I’d had enough, and finished the area search. A large, chunky warbler, mostly olive-green in color with a bold, almost-complete white eye-ring; it was not especially shy, and walked about the rocks of the Lighthouse in open view for several minutes. The crown and nape were olive-green, while the auriculars were gray-tinged olive; the throat was light buffy yellow. The eye, which was large-looking, was encircled by a bold white eye-ring, only broken briefly at the very rear. The bill was thick and longish, was horn colored on the mandible, and dark on the maxilla. The upperparts were olive-green, with no contrast between the nape, the wings, the back, the rump or the tail. The underparts were green-yellow, contrasting with the upperparts as well as the throat. The undertail coverts were the most-yellow part of the bird. The secondary coverts, tertials, and edges to the secondaries and primaries were the same olive-green color as the rest of the upperparts. The inner webs to the primaries were dark. The primary coverts were dark, contrasting noticeably with the fresher, greenish-edged secondary coverts. The legs were long, thick and pinkish. This Connecticut Warbler was, by far, the most cooperative and accommodating of any I have seen. Though it would flush, it was reasonably tolerant of close approach. As I watched it at North Landing, it walked out from under a pallet, and started feeding on tiny invertebrates in a patch on non-native vegetation.
Technical information
- Model
- Canon EOS 40D
- ISO
- 100
- Focal length
- 310 mm
- Flash
- Flash did not fire, auto
- f-stop
- f/5.6
- Shutter speed
- 1/800 sec
- Dimensions
- 2745 pixels x 1824 pixels
- Original file size
- 1.06 MB