Also Cape Mays are generally the commonest identifiable fall warbler on PSU campus, per eBird data and my experience. In spring, however, Yellow-rumps dominate.
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From: State College (PA) Bird Club <SCBIRDCL...> on behalf of Nick Bolgiano <nickbolgiano...>
Sent: Monday, October 6, 2025 10:10:29 AM
To: <SCBIRDCL...> <SCBIRDCL...>
Subject: Cape May Warblers at the Stone Mt hawk watch
Several weeks ago, I wrote about an influx of Bay-breasted Warblers. There must have been a huge number in our PA forests.
At the Stone Mt hawk watch, there has been an influx of Cape May Warblers, another of the spruce budworm warblers. This is the best place that I have encountered for seeing Cape May Warblers in the fall and this has been a good year for them. I suspect that they are comfortable in that setting. One place where they frequent is the American Mountain Ash bush behind the platform, where they glean bugs off the berries (you can see that in one picture). I sometimes see them in the American Chestnut saplings that grow from old rootstocks and then die (the 3 Oct 5 pictures have chestnut leaves as backgrounds.) (In contrast, we see relatively few Bay-breasted Warblers there, as they prefer a thicker woods.) If there is a warbler flock near the platform, Pedro Miranda and I (the Sunday-Tuesday watch team) pish them out.
Yellow-rumped Warblers also seem to like the setting at the Stone Mt hawk watch. I include one picture from the Mountain Ash of a Yellow rump. Where Cape May and Yellow-rumped Warblers breed in the boreal forest of Canada, American Mountain Ash is a common bush. In central PA, mountain ash berries remain until late in the season, apparently because they are not especially delectable. But in the boreal forest, some birds, especially Pine Grosbeaks, seek them out.
I have also seen a fair number of Tennessee Warblers this fall, the 3rd of the spruce budworm warblers. This seemingly speaks to the effect of the ongoing spruce budworm infestation in eastern Quebec. A special aspect of the first half of the hawk watch season at Stone Mt is getting there by 900 and looking for warblers. About half of the Cape May Warblers are bright yellow, as in these pictures, and the other half grayish-green (the young ones).
