Paletta park, Burlington, ON. May 3 2020. This will not take long. It was a glorious morning under a clear blue sky, it was warm and I was one of a group of happy hopefuls searching an overgrown bank of White Cedars for a warbler or two. They are arriving we know that, we just needed to spot them.
We soon found a couple of Palm Warblers, then a Blue–headed Vireo and a Ruby–crowned Kinglet both of which were hard to follow as they foraged deep in the old cedars. Behind us we heard a Warbling Vireo (but never did see it) and a Gray Catbird mewed softly and made us all turn around. Eventually the small crowd dispersed, I was alone when a Yellow–rumped Warbler emerged right in front of me. I made a small kissing sound and he stopped to investigate.
I was able to get a few photos today: the Yellow-rumped Warbler at the masthead, this one here and one of our Palm Warblers below.
Yellow-rumped Warblers are not uncommon, they leave us to our own devices through the winter months but come back as soon as they can at the end of April or early May; they are a sort of gatekeeper to the imminent return of more exotic warblers. For their unselfish service to winter-weary birders Yellow-rumped Warbler was my Bird of the Day.
