The Yellow Warbler

Since there's nothing happening in the yard these days I think I'm going to take the opportunity to blog about some of the wonderful birding experiences I had this summer on our various camping trips.

This post is dedicated to my ever present BFF the Yellow Warbler. These guys were at our campsite on almost every trip. I think that they've visited my yard on occasion.

I think my favourite Yellow warbler experience had to come at St. Malo this past august. We'd brought a rubber dingy with us to tool around the motor free lake, but I'd had a sneaking suspicion that I had another motive behind it...and as it turns out I did.

After noticing that there seemed to be at least a dozen of them playing in the bushes that butted up against the lake in our site I decided to venture out in the dingy with my camera (with some trepidation...expensive lens + water do NOT mix).

What I would witness next will be remembered forever and ever. Apparently when you approach birds from the water they have no fear of you. The pictures here weren't taken on that particular excursion. I decided to sit and watch more than try to photograph it.

The males and females seemed to be playing and eating in some sort of Shakespearean frolic. Aside from the fact that I had never seen so many of them in one particular place at one time, the sight was one to behold.

There was no way I could capture the beauty of what I was seeing other than imprinting it into my brain. They flitted to and fro, ducking into the bushes in an almost hide and seek manner. One would pop out and grab a bug/berry remnant, flit over to it's counterpart as if to say "look at what I have!!" Then flit off being chased like mad. It almost seemed like a spring courtship ritual.

It truly seemed magical.

The picture above was one that I took on our first trip of the year to Opapiskaw. I had just finished my first half marathon and had blisters the size of my fist on my feet and toes. Moving was definitely a challenge for the first few days.

As a result i was pretty much tethered to our trailer and my hubbie would walk the puppy. Initially I was resentful of the situation, but then I realized that buy sitting there all day long I was privileged to witness things that I otherwise would have missed.

The main one being how warbler rich our site was. For the first time ever I didn't turn the radio on (it started off that way because I couldn't walk over to it to turn it on...it stayed that way after I realized the sound would chase away the more skittish birds). Seems obvious right? Well apparently the thought had never crossed my mind before...live and learn!

The yellow warbler was a very regular visitor to our site and the desire for green worms was high...and the trees in our site had plenty!!

I can hardly wait to see these guys again next year!!