Thursday, three of us joined Lori, the Environmental Education Director, in dodging the mosquitoes to count migrating warblers.  Our island is in the eastern flyway, and many bird species migrate through on their way south.  We even have shorebirds that will winter with us before reassuming a huge migration to their breeding grounds.  This morning, we were focused on warblers– which are tiny, they move around a lot, and can be hard to identify.  Our wax myrtle and sumac and beautyberry can provide them with nourishment as they continue their journey southward.  One great find was this black and white warbler (that is actually its name) who posed for us on Lake Timicau drive.

We also found redstarts, kinglets, catbirds, mockingbirds, brown thrashers, boat-tailed grackles, kingfishers, northern harriers, several flickers, a wide variety of the usual shore and seabirds, and a bird that I think I identified correctly (digital photography makes it possible to go back, enlarge, and really examine the bird in a way you can’t in the field) as a palm warbler.