a busy morning walk

Bob Adamo came over today to join me on my morning walk; I suspect he was hoping to find the Western Tanager. Well we didn't find it but the walk was full of birds, the most intriguing of which was a warbler feeding on Red Cedar berries in the very trees where I saw Orange-crowned Warbler yesterday. My first instinct was, not surprisingly, to call it an Orange-crown -- it was equally small with a short, sharp beak and a fairly uniform color above. But, unlike the Orange-crown, the breast was a uniform light yellow without any visible streaking, the upper parts were more olive than gray, there was a trace of wingbars and a definite eyering. My best guess is that it was an immature Wilson's Warbler but I am not 100% of this and the bird disappeared before we could get any better looks (or photos). In addition to this confusing fall warbler, we had a very decent list (including a couple of birds that I found after Bob left) as follows: Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Mute Swan Canada Goose Mallard Osprey Wild Turkey Greater Yellowlegs Herring Gull Ring-billed Gull Rock Dove Mourning Dove Ruby-throated Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Downy Woodpecker Northern Flicker (many) Eastern Wood-pewee Eastern Phoebe Red-eyed Vireo Blue-headed Vireo Blue Jay (lots) American Crow Tree Swallow Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse White-breasted Nuthatch Carolina Wren Ruby-crowned Kinglet American Robin Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher Black-throated Green Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler (1st of the season for me) Black-and-white Warbler Northern Cardinal Eastern Towhee Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow Red-winged Blackbird Common Grackle House Sparrow American Goldfinch House Finch That makes 47 species not counting the mystery warbler. Eric Salzman