ML646380012

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Story by Chris Howard: Rosie and I brought a sandwich to the Community Garden to eat at the picnic tables by the demonstration gardens, when a big truck drove up and Kevin Grevenkamp hopped out. He is an irrigation expert and here to fix a leaky frost-free hose bib. We walked over to the broken bib located on the west edge of the community garden plots and chatted about the issues with the original installation and how he was fixing it. As he spoke, Chris became distracted by an unfamiliar warbler call note in the community plots 30 feet to the east. He saw the yellowish warbler fly low from one plot to another and land under a bush. He advanced and since the call notes, repeated every few seconds, were unfamiliar, started up Merlin which identified nothing except the obvious nearby Audubon's Warbler and Black Phoebe. He kept recording anyway, slowly advancing. And because this was a simple lunch break, their binoculars and camera were in the car. So, naked-eyed, he kept getting glimpses of the warbler under the bush and called to Rosie, "I think it's a Kentucky Warbler". Then got diagnostic views and then called out to Rosie, "It's a Kentucky Warbler!" (Listen to the audio for the moment the identity of the bird is confirmed). Rosie hurried to the car to get her camera, returned, and got great shots while Chris went back to the car to retrieve his camera and binoculars. Upon his return, the bird played hide and seek in the community plots, disappearing under vegetation and behind boards, only to fly quickly across a path to hide again. At this point, quite unexpectedly, since we didn't feel we were too close to disturb the bird, it flew out of the garden to the southeast and landed in the junipers and apple tree surrounding the propane tanks on the north side of Sterling Heights. Chris refound the bird on the ground there and got a short video before it flew up and down into the junipers. He retreated, put the word out, and ate lunch with Rosie. Once birders started arriving, we joined them to refind the bird. Amazingly, Diane and Nel refound the bird in the south-facing entry area of Sterling Heights, where all who searched for the bird observed it. The sun went down shortly thereafter and we took a celebratory group selfie.