The Warblers Just Got Out of Class Too

Somehow Professor Rablen timed his lecture wrong and ended class 10 minutes early, giving me 20 minutes to poke around Upper Wister Draw. Looks like the big migrants are dropping in, as I quickly found a singing Ovenbird and a singing Black-throated Green Warbler, both new species for the spring, and got looks at both without binoculars.

Black-throated Green Warbler, male. One of my most sought-after birds in the Crum, as I never see them in NC, and I think they're pretty cool-lookin.

With those two species as possible indicators of a larger warbler fallout, I'll be checking things out after Orgo lab this afternoon, and undoubtedly tomorrow morning as well.

• 1 Black-throated Green Warbler - Upper Wister Draw, on the turn towards Alligator Rock. In the top canopy, as usual. Singing its slower and more relaxed song, not the faster one.
  
• 1 Ovenbird - foraging in Upper Wister Draw. Silent for a while, then began to sing after a few minutes. I was surprised at how small it was compared to the similar ground-foraging thrushes such as the nearby robins; for some reason I always assumed that Ovenbirds were larger, as I had no nearby birds for comparison.