August 9, 2007 [LINK / comment]

Early warbler fallout

I don't know if the hot weather has anything to do with it, but I was amazed by the variety of warblers and other songbirds I saw at Montgomery Hall Park early this morning. In one location, I saw five different warbler species! (The first five in the list below.) Usually, such a concentrated "fallout" of warblers occurs during migration season -- April, early May, or September.

• Hooded warbler (F/J)
• Worm-eating warblers (4+)
• Black and white warbler (F)
• Ovenbird
• Redstarts (4+ F/J)
• Towhee (M)
• Brown thrashers
• Yellow-billed cuckoos (2)
• White-breasted nuthatches
• Red-bellied woodpeckers (4 M, F, J)
• Scarlet tanager (F)
• Cedar waxwings (5)

"Hummingbird moths"

Is it a bird? Is it a bee? No, it's a Hawk Moth, which I spotted at Augusta Wetlands on July 22; Bill Funk identified this species for me. This image is slightly smaller than life size. Unlike most moths, the ones in the sphinx moth genus beat their wings very rapidly, like a bee. YuLee Larner wrote about the odd "Hummingbird moths" in her birding column in yesterday's News Leader. For an interesting discussion with lots of photos, see www.whatsthatbug.com