Nashville Warbler? No!

As I was coming up the trail leading to the head of the marsh, a warbler popped up and perched prettily on a dead branch all out in the open. Unmarked olive green upper parts, gray head, fat round eye ring, washed out chin and upper breast color neatly separated by a distinct line from the yellow color underneath that extended all the way to the undertail coverts. Nashville Warbler, no? NO! It took me while but I finally did the inevitable double-take. The bird was a juvenile CONNECTICUT WARBLER! I didn't get a good look at the legs but everything else -- the habitat, the pop-up perch, the hood-like effect of the head with a marked line separating it from the yellow underparts, even the washed out chin -- says immature Connecticut, probably a male (due to the very grayish head). This bird is a ground nester and ground feeder in the boreal forest and birders in the NYC parks have the privilege of seeing it walk on the ground but this is very difficult here due to the dense undergrowth at the edge and head of the marsh. This is not the first time I've found it. I first saw here it 1993 and for two or three years after and then again in 2007, always in late September and on the marsh edge not far from this morning's sighting. It is, I suspect, a regular migrant but it just requires some luck to pop it up. Ironically, I have never seen this bird anywhere else!

Eric Salzman