In mid October, my friends and I took a weekend trip to Cape May. We ended up going a month later than usual to see what warblers we could find. One species completely blew out the rest in numbers, the Yellow-rumped Warbler.
Yellow-rumped Warbler, Myrtle sub-species
Our first stop was Forsythe – we were greeted with hundreds of Yellow-rumps right near the main parking lot.
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler on cedar
They were all over the dunes of every beach we visited, hopping on the fences or foraging around the sand.
Yellow-rumped Warbler on a fence
Yellow-rumped Warbler on a fence
One of the trees that they preferred were the cedars that are abundant throughout the coast.
Yellow-rumped Warbler in cedar
Yellow-rumped Warbler off of the hawk watch
We also saw a ton of fly-byes, especially during the Higbee morning flight. In total, I am confident that we saw well over one hundred, if not two hundred thousand individual Yellow-rumped Warblers during the weekend. They were everywhere!
Yellow-rumped Warbler at Cape May Point State PArk