And so it begins:

>From Saturday, June 28, through Sunday, July 6, I attended the University
of Maine at Machias, Institute for Field Ornithology Warblers Workshop.
The workshop (field trips and academic level lectures) focused on nesting
warblers of the northeast coast of Maine and the New Brunswick, Canada
island Campobello, with an optional field trip for local seabirds.

Field study sites included Columbia Falls, Kennebec District, YoHo Head (a
somewhat failed summer/retirement home development) and Rocky Lake areas
close to Machias with trips to more distant sites, the northern unit of
Moosehorn NWR, West Quoddy Head State Park, the Machias Seal Island group
(about 10 miles directly east of Cutler, Maine harbor out in the
Atlantic/at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy) not part of Maine and contested
as a territory between the USA and Canadian governments plus FDR
Campobello International Park-East Quoddy Head Park-and other coastal
areas of Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada.

I'll first relate an incident suggesting astonishing fecundity-potential
in warblers. While birding at West Quoddy Head, the site of the
eastern-most landfall of the United States, we heard a chorus of baby
bird calls, and lined up on a tree branch about 20' up were 8 (yes,
EIGHT!!!) tiny fledglings. What species could this be? we thought and
waited. Very soon and often, a Black and White warbler adult came with
food. Unbelievable, and yet with the collective bug-bite experience
amongst the watchers, we KNOW there really are enough insects in Maine for
a pair of B x W warbler parents to raise a brood of 8 babies. We stayed
around probably two hours and during this time, the fledglings (all
identical markings and really tiny-no Cowbird babies amongst them) began
to disperse.....A once-in-a-lifetime observation.

While I have never witnessed a migrating warbler "fall-out" with hundreds
feeding on the ground and in the trees and bushes as happens occasionally
on the Gulf and Great Lakes coasts, to be where these birds actually
nest seems an equally remarkable experience. They are singing from
established territories; they are in highest breeding plumage; they are
carrying food to nestlings EVERYWHERE. I had about 24 life birds, not all
warblers and most all were studied beyond the "listing" glimpse.

Some species such as Black-throated Green, Black & White, Northern Parula,
American Redstart, Nashville, Yellowthroat, Magnolia, Yellowrumped-Myrtle,
Yellow, Palm and Ovenbird were seen or heard (Ovenbird shy-had one great
look; song everywhere) almost daily. In one area on one day, we named an
un-named gravel road "Blackburnian" Road because this species (the
spectacularly-colored males engaging in territorial fights over our heads)
was seen and heard all around us!

Other species included great, but single, views of Northern Water Thrush,
Canada, Bay-breasted (gaspingly beautiful male), Pine and Blackpoll. I
missed seeing, but heard Wilson's, Black-throated Blue, Tennessee (heard
by others) and Chestnut-sided (heard by most and seen by some, not me,
maybe another time.)

The lectures were highly informative and detailed with information given
on ALL warbler species seen in USA, including our Western species with
both locally collected and Cornell Labs-generated song tapes played in
class that included many species variations of songs and calls. It's a
wonderful kind of freedom to walk in these northern Maine woods in
the nesting season and be able to aural-ID 20+ (well......potentially; I
can do about 8 pretty well right now) warbler species!

That's enough for Report 1-Maine. Not much happening at Des Moines Marina
over the weekend, mobbed with people! We do have a small summer resident
population of varying ages of California gulls.

More soon,
Maureen Ellis me2 at u.washington.edu Univ of WA and Des Moines, WA