I went up to Michigan State Forest in the Pharsalia New York with two of my friends. It turned out to be a great trip! This small gem of a forest is very similar to the habitat in the Adirondacks and is only an hour away from me.
New Michigan State Forest, taken with my iPhone
As soon as we turned onto the road into the forest, we heard a Mourning Warbler singing right off the road. All we had to do was look up to see him out in the open. This was a life bird for me in Ohio the other week, but I did not get this good of a look at one!
Mourning Warbler singing in the open
I did manage to get a quick video of him singing. It’s tough to keep the camera from shaking at 400mm with no tripod, so I kept it short.
We saw or heard ten more individual Mourning Warblers. For me, they stole the show, but had great competition. Blackburnian Warblers were everywhere and did not make us strain to see them. We saw or heard almost forty of them!
One of many Blackburnian Warblers we had great views of
We also had many Magnolia and Chestnut-sided Warblers, Common Yellowthroats and heard over 60 Ovenbirds. Other great Warblers were Black-throated Green and Blue as well as some Canada Warblers. One of the Canadas surprised us with great looks on a small, bare tree that had a Mourning, Blackburnian and Canada Warbler on it within five minutes.
This Canada Warbler hid from the camera, not our binoculars!
The Mourning Warbler tripped off of a branch after sitting in this tree for a couple of minutes
These Warblers were hanging out in an area that was torn apart by a tornado a couple of years ago. It ended up making great habitat for the birds
That little tree to the right is the Warbler tree
Early on, we had the pleasure of instantly finding a Brown Creeper’s nest. Mom and dad were busily going in and out of the bark, most likely feeding their young.
Brown Creeper near its nest
This forest is full of Thrushes, but we actually did not see or hear many of them. We heard the call notes of a Swainson’s Thrush and two Veery’s, heard some Wood Thrushes sing and saw this Hermit Thrush gathering grub for her nestlings.
Hermit Thrush
Other great highlights included a Red Crossbill flyover (yeah… they breed here too!), Ravens calling and flying overhead, A Red-Shouldered Hawk and tons of singing Red-eyed and Blue-headed Vireos. Over all, it was a perfect morning of looking for Warblers. Click here to see our checklist on eBird.
Count this forest on my to-do list for every future summer to come!
Mourning Warbler