There would be no argument that if we Prospect birders held an annual award for warbler king,Ed Crowne would win it unanimously for 2017. Thanks to Ed' superb hearing and profound memory, he found a megararity SWAINSONS WARBLER in southern Midwood. It's the first Swainson's since Tom Preston's May 24 th 1998 bird; its also the first one photographed-- by a number of birders.
I had just pulled away from a work site in south Midwood,cutting up a large limb blocking a trail when I saw Ed standing on the mulch trail .So natch, I stopped my vehicle and walked up to him. He says to me," do you hear that?" I strained my ears but of course couldn't. The bird sang again and Ed asked me again if I heard the loud singing.Nope.Ed says then " Its a Swainsons". So I replied oh cool I saw quite a number of them thrushes last week here. Ed looks at me intently and say," THE WARBLER!" My eyes almost popped out and I cussed under my breath.
For most of the morning the SWAINSONS sang sporadically giving away it's location after the initial confirmation. It ranged as far as the green containers at center drive margin to eventually settlement in a section of woods marked off by the mulch trails that start and end in a reversed 7 loop with the middle asphalt path. A number of birders were there at my lunchtime and despite its occasional singing I never saw it on my too brief lunch hour. This is up to 100 PM. A later Ebird note says someone saw it well off this particular hardtop path at 3 PM. Pending more reports which I haven't seen as of 530,perhaps the bird quieted down.I'm hoping this Swainson's duplicates the forest park bird years ago,staying over a week. All fingers crossed.
For specific directions , turn into the hardtop path that starts at Green container 7 from center drive. The first mulch trail that crosses was the initial location.The woods to the left beyond was the late morning residency .Good luck.
Superstar Ed Crowne is already looking good wearing a crown. Congratulations to Ed !! And thanks to Rob Bate updating the reports for me as well for my blog and retweets during my busy work morning.
Previous record s on Ebird
May 24 1998
May 1st 1963
May 5th & 6 th. 1950
