ML609699690

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

*second North American record; Antone Celery; long primary projection and pale secondary panel rules out Melodious Warbler. Photos. When I initially popped it and got a brief view my mind first went to another Wood Warbler with the yellow coloration concentrated around the face, but I immediately knew it wasn't one due to the lack of a strong supercilium and I got confused. Was it a weird Yellow Warbler? No, it couldn't be, it looked pretty off for that, but it was a quick look. I trudged around in the putchkie for a bit unsuccessfully, and then finally popped it again and I managed some distant photos. After reviewing the photos, I knew I had what was probably an Icterine Warbler due to the long bill and overall plumage, a bird that wouldn't have even been on my radar if it weren't for Gambell's bird last year. I also knew I needed to get some better photos. It took a lot more trudging, but eventually I got on it several more times. This celery patch is pretty miserable to walk solo, and it was difficult to precisely follow the bird with the uneven terrain (barabaras, etc.). The Icterine Warbler initially popped out of one of the barabara pits and seemed to generally favor them (there was wind). It stayed south of the road the whole time until the very end when I had worked it into the celery on the north side of the road and then up the slope heading towards Zapadni Ravine where I left it. A very, very surprising find on an inauspicious day. A few days of north winds preceded this sighting. I think everyone thought the record at Gambell last year was a complete one off. Will these two sightings remain isolated? Or is a new pattern developing of this long distance migrant being prone to reverse migrating a la Wood Warbler? Icterine Warbler is not known to breed any closer to the Pribilofs than 3,500 miles to the west and there are no known records in East Asia. In the words of Los Van Van in a commonly played song by Luis and I this season, ¡Qué sorpresa me llevé!

Technical information

Dimensions

2410 pixels x 1607 pixels

Original file size

1.11 MB