The Heron Files: Yellow Warbler

For Thanksgiving, my wife and I went down to New Bern, North Carolina to spend some time with my Aunt and Uncle. They are avid birders, much more so that Sharon and I, and fellow vegetarians. So we planned several days of good food and great birds. But we weren't expecting as good as birding as we got.

Thanksgiving morning Sharon and I stayed around the hotel in New Bern. My Aunt and Uncle were coming up around lunch time and then taking us to some friends of theirs for dinner. The weather was cold but sunny so after breakfast, we walked around a park next to the hotel. We saw American Coots, Mallards, Ruddy Duck, gulls. All expected birds. But then as we returned to the hotel we passed some shrubs as the walkway passed under a bridge. And there among a few Yellow-rumped Warblers Sharon spotted this bright bird.

It took us a few minutes to piece together the clues: warbler; all yellow including tail and undertail coverts, a thin, yellow eye ring and light red streaks along the sides of the throat. It was a Yellow Warbler. A bird that should be in Central or South America by now. But it was happily picking insects off the leaves and ignoring the people walking by on the path.

We returned about an hour later with my Aunt and Uncle and quickly refound the bird in the same vine we had left it. It gave us great views as it worked its way along the shrubs. We passed on the sighting to one of the other Thanksgiving guests, actually our host, and he refound the bird Friday morning in the same spot. That spot is in the circle that my Aunt and Uncle have for the Christmas Bird Count so hopefully it will stick around until then. If the bird has been finding sufficient food so far then maybe it will survive the winter and get a head start on its fellow Yellow Warblers in the spring.