Subject: [Tweeters] Major Push of Yellow-rumped Warblers at Point no Point
Date: May 2 14:09:34 2011
From: Brad Waggoner - wagtail at sounddsl.com


Hi All,

Speaking of pent-up migration. Vic Nelson and I stood in the rain this
morning marveling at the Yellow-rumped Warbler (YRWA) spectacle at Point
no Point (PnP) this morning. By the time we finished counting at about
10:30 we had a conservative estimate of 3,000. It seems as though a big
push of YRWA's occurs at least on one day (morning) during spring
migration at PnP. Last year vic tallied 5,500 YRWA's on April 20th.
Perhaps, this is a good clue into how late migration is occurring this
Spring. Given the rainy conditions with wind mostly out of the north to
start, many of the YRWA's were coming down into the wild rose, lawn, or
marsh, but they would eventually lift and continue either north over the
water or west. It was fun to watch even if we did get a wee bit wet.

Though the species diversity of the movement this morning was low, I
take this as a positive sign for upcoming visits, as YRWA's always seem
to mark the start of the migration spectacle at PnP. We did have about
30 Orange-crowned Warblers and a few FOS Western Tanagers along with
good numbers of swallows. Probably the best bird of the morning, from a
Kitsap County perspective anyway, was a flyover Whimbrel. Vic only has a
few records of Whimbrel for his yard-list over the years. There was also
two Western Kingbirds in the farm area south of Hansville. At some
point, I expect to have a few of them as flyovers during some of the
morning movements in upcoming weeks near the Lighthouse.

On another note, I would like to echo Dennis's comments about spring
Semipalmated Sandpipers (SESA), specifically those reported not
mistakenly referring to Semipalmated Plovers. As a compiler of records
(along with Ryan Merrill), I am looking for an iron-clad description or
perhaps even a photograph for a spring SESA to make it as a spring
record. Yes, we do get SESA's as an uncommon migrant in the fall, mostly
in the Puget Trough (and last fall seemed to be a good one for them),
but they are a rare bird in spring. We probably only get on average 2
legitimate sightings of SESA's here on the westside each spring. I know
that often times short-billed male Western Sandpipers showing very
little rufous color have sent me down a path of thinking SESA. But
lacking blunt tip to bill and showing heavier breast and flank streaking
have kept these "SESA wantabees" as just Western Sandpipers.

And Dennis, no Long-billed Dowitchers for my brother Dan and me in our
coastal shorebird study on Friday no matter how hard we tried.

Cheers and good birding,

Brad Waggoner
Bainbridge Island
mailto:wagtail at sounddsl.com