Recent Sightings

Wilson's warbler on the cover of the April-
June 2014 Vermilion Flycatcher magazine

In April Wilson's warbler's stop in our yards and our natural areas. All they want is some bugs. Our native trees and plants, especially flowering mesquites, provide all they need.

Dr. Charles van Riper has studied Wilson's warbler migration. He found that once having found a bountiful area the warblers may stay in that area--maybe in the very same tree--for two or three days eating insects before moving on. You can find more on this in the April-June 2014 issue of Tucson Audubon's Vermilion Flycatcher magazine.

Watch your blooming mesquites in April and early May!

My back yard has a large mesquite and in late April it was in bloom. But I had never seen a Wilson's warbler there. On Sunday April 27 I slept in. It was the day after my birdathon (see previous blog entry) and I had been awake for about 22 hours on Saturday. But by 10:30 a.m. I was up and sitting in the back yard, reading the paper and eating breakfast.

Well, when you have been watching and counting birds for around 19 hours the day before, you can't just turn it off. I made mental notes of the birds I was seeing and hearing in the back yard. Then I brought out the laptop and began entering a checklist what I was seeing into eBird. By 11:30 a.m. I had seen 14 species--pretty good for having just sat there for an hour. One of the last birds to show up was a Wilson's warbler. True to form, it was foraging for insects among the mesquite flowers.

What's in your neighborhood?