Migrating Warblers

Prairie Warbler

Common Yellowthroat, imm. male

Some warblers have already started on their migration. Here are a few we recently saw on "warbler edge," an area of our woods that gets morning sun and faces our field. The warblers like this edge, as insects are active early there because of the warming effect of the sun, so they can feed there. Fortunately, we can see this edge from where we sit with our morning coffee on our deck.
We saw a Prairie Warbler, top photo. Note the bright yellow underneath, streaking on the sides and the darkish semicircle under the eye. Warblers are often harder to identify in the fall because they change their plumage into more muted colors and patterns than spring. The bottom photo is an immature, male Common Yellowthroat. You can see his bright yellow throat and chest and just a few dark feathers on his face. He will eventually acquire the full dark "bandit" like mask of the adult male by next spring. There are many more warblers to come, yeah! We'll be looking.