Date: 10/6/25 3:16 pm From: Merrill David <mer22david...> Subject: Re: Cape May Warblers at the Stone Mt hawk watch
Cape May today, and Black-throated Green a few days ago, in Park Forest.
Also, very happy to hear Cedar waxwings, along with the usual crowd.
-Merrill David
On Mon, Oct 6, 2025 at 2:39 PM Grove, Gregory William <gwg2...> wrote:
> To follow up on Nick's comments, even arriving after 10 this morning I saw
> a few distinctly different individual Cape Mays. And bases on Merlin app,
> they were apparently a constant presence even when not in view. Same goes
> for yellow-rumps. Anice extra was a Back-throated Blue female and I
> believe a Palm Warbler though not quite sure.
>
> Warblers certainly well out-numbered raptors on this day with no wind and
> painfully blue sky.
>
>
>
> Greg Grove
> eBird reviewer: Blair, Cambria, Clearfield, Huntingdon, Juniata, Mifflin
> PBA Ridge and Valley Coordinator
> Stone Mt. Hawk Watch, Winter Raptor Survey
> Huntingdon, PA.
> ------------------------------
> *From:* State College (PA) Bird Club <SCBIRDCL...> on behalf
> of Nick Bolgiano <nickbolgiano...>
> *Sent:* Monday, October 6, 2025 10:10 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).
>
> Nick Bolgiano
>
