Black-throated Green Warbler

 The black-throated green warbler is a small passerine that breeds in the eastern half of North America. The breeding range includes the south eastern two thirds of Canada, the northern Great Lakes States, and the eastern United States from Maine down to Virginia and the Carolinas. Across Canada they breed in coniferous boreal forests. In the northern United States they typically breed in mixed coniferous\deciduous and in the southern portions of  their range they breed in cypress swamps. This photo was taken in southern Minnesota in May during the Spring migration.

 Like most warbler species teh black-throated green warbler mainly eats insects. Usually it gleans its prey from branches and leaves. It will also sometimes catch insects in flight and occasionally eat berries Since there are not insects in Canada and the northern United States during the winter these warblers migrate to southern Florida, Mexico, Central and northern Southern America. This photo was taken in southern Florida in October.

Black-throated Green Warbler

Black-throated Green Warbler

The black-throated green warbler is a wood warbler that is found in the eastern half of North America. They breed primarily in the boreal and coniferous forests of eastern Canada, although there is an Appalachian subspecies that breed in the cypress swamps of Virginia, North and South Carolina. Black-throated green warbles feed on insects and their larva which they glean from leaves and small branches. In the winter they migrate to southern Florida, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and northern parts of South America. 

Warbler Wave Crashes on Crosby Park

Well the wave of warblers that I have been hoping for this past month finally hit this weekend. Even though it was a bit chilly it was sunny and the warblers were out in force. It was a perfect weekend for photography. Because of our late winter the trees are just starting to leaf out which makes photographing these tiny little birds a lot easier.

The last time that we had a warbler wave was back in 2011. During that wave I photographed many of the different species at the Minnesota Valley Refuge and Crosby Farm Park. So on Friday, after I left work, I headed over to Crosby. The woods were thick with the common warblers, yellow-rump, palm, black and white and yellow, but I also managed to find some of the sexy warblers, like magnolia, black-throated green, Wilsons, blackburnian and more. Crosby is an excellent location to find warblers during spring migration because much of the park is wooded flood plain which is excellent habitat for wood warblers. The park is also along the Mississippi River which is the path that the warblers in this area take to migrate, the Mississippi flyway.

Tuesday Tweets

 The black-throated green warbler is a wood warbler that is found in the eastern portions of North America. The breed in Canada and the northern U.S., including northeast Minnesota. We typically only see them here in the southern part of Minnesota during migration, which is when I photographed this bird. Their is also a small subspecies of these birds that breed further south in the Appalachian Mountains.All of the black-throated green migrate south into Mexico, Central and South America for the winter.

Welcome to Tuesday Tweets! To join in the fun just post a photo of a bird and then link it by here by using the handy dandy link below. Then make sure you visit other sites to do a little bird watching.

Minnesota Valley NWR Warbler Walk

On Saturday evening the rain finally stopped, the clouds began to break up and the sun made a rare appearance. Even though it was already almost dinner time I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and headed over to the Minnesota Valley NWR. I was hoping to have a chance to photograph some warblers. We have been seeing yellow-rumped warblers for over a week but reports were starting to come in about other warblers in the area.

Taking pictures of warblers can be very tricky, because of their small size and constant movement. Fortunately the trees here have not yet begun to leaf out which makes it a bit easier to find and photograph them, but as you can see in this picture of an orange-crowned warbler the trees will be spreading their new leaves soon.

One of the more rare warblers that I spotted was this black-throated green warbler. He was searching a pine tree for insects when I came down the path. I did have to turn up the ISO to get a picture in the low light, which is why it is not the best picture, but I was just happy to see one this year.

This Nashville warbler was high up in the tree tops. It did not seem very concerned about the strange guy with the big camera below it. It may have just come in that night, warblers typically migrate at night then spend the day foraging for food, and was hungry for a long flight.

The best shots that I got were of a black and white warbler. I have taken black and white warbler pictures in the past but they usually do not turn out very good. This time the bird was pretty close, traveling up a tree trunk the same way that a woodpecker or nuthatch would, and in good light which helped me to get my best black and white photos to date.

There were also other birds around. Down at the ponds there were several types of ducks. Along the shore great egrets and a solitary sandpiper were wading through the water in search of dinner and rustling through the leaves I found a lot of white-throated sparrows.

Warblers and Friends from Fort Snelling

Before we left on vacation I was almost sad to be leaving. With the spring migration coming late this year, due to the extended winter weather, the warblers were all over at home. They seemed to be holding up waiting for the weather up north to get better, but I figure by the time that we get back they will have moved on. I can't complain though because we have had a great time shooting out in Yellowstone. Here are some more of the warblers, and orioles, that I was seeing before we left.

Baltimore oriole
Tennessee warbler

yellow warbler
orange-crowned warbler

blackburnian warbler

black-throated green warbler

Maybe I will get lucky and some of the stragglers will still be around when I get back but for now I am going to go out and enjoy nature where I am, even with the couple of inches of snow that fell last night.

Warblers from Old Cedar Ave Bridge

Yesterday we left our hotel after breakfast, around 7am, and got into the park around 8:30am. We did not get back to our new hotel until after 8pm. It was a very full and productive day with great weather, black bear cubs, bison cubs, elk, grizzly, big horned sheep, American kestrel and a lot more. The weather is supposed to turn rainy later in the week so I am spending as much time as possible outside shooting as I can while the weather is nice. So hopefully I can put together a few more Yellowstone pics for you a bit later in the week but for now how about some swallows and warblers that I shot at the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge on May 11th.

barn swallow
Nashville warbler
black and white warbler

black-throated green warbler

I promise that I will have plenty of pics and posts from Yellowstone later in the week and when I get back home.