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Hypothetical Yellow-browed Warbler at Lake Park 10/21/06

Some unbelievable stuff can show up on the lakefront after northwesterly winds in fall, but no one confirmed the report of the Yellow-browed Warbler, a kinglet-like Old World warbler from Siberia, that Jim Frank says he saw on 10/21/06.  I am afraid his report will remain as hypothetical as the Northern Wheatear, a thrush from Greenland, that was reported at Lake Park years ago.  But that doesn't dampen my recommendation to don your parka and scour the lakefront this time of year.

More believable and just as exciting to me were the hundreds of Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers that Bob Domagalski and Marlyn Winter saw on the soccer field in Lake Park; and the late Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Blue-winged Warbler.

Paul Hunter
http://home.wi.rr.com/phunter1/lakeparkbirds.html
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Subject: FW: Yellow-browed Warbler north of Bradford Beach
From: "Cutright.Noel" <Noel.Cutright@we-energies.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 07:25:33 -0500

 Hope someone can search this area today for this almost unbelievable species.  I believe this is a species that Bettie Harriman's group found on Attu earlier this fall.
Noel Cutright, Ozaukee Co.

-----Original Message-----
From: jim frank [mailto:jcfbirddr@yahoo.com]
Sent: Saturday, October 21, 2006 9:03 PM
To: Cutright.Noel; Bob Domagalski
Subject: Yellow-browed Warbler north of Bradford Beach

Bob, Noel,
     Hoping one of you is reading mail tonite.  10 a.m. Saturday I had a Yellow-browed Warbler!! in the treeline along the rocks north of the algae washup where the gadwalls hangout between Bradford Beach and old gunclub.  Watched a kinglet back half and a Tennssee Warbler-like front half for 15-20 minutes in the trees and goldenrod sort of with Ruby-crowns, a gnatcatcher, yellow-rumps, palm, orange-crown.  Fed like a kinglet, but warbler bill and head shape, and all appropriate markings.  
     I was on my way to Illinois to visit my dad in a nursing home, no book in hand, no cell phone, no idea if I was nuts or what - until I got home tonite.  When I opened my European field guide - it was a dead ringer!! and listed as a Siberian vagrant in Europe.  Doesn't seem to fit the mold of a cage escapee with that supposed range of occurence.  With the weather like it was today - just maybe the group didn't move much.  Anyway - please don't think I'm nuts.
                                      Jim
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John Idzikowski, idzikoj@uwm.edu
Milwaukee
10/23/2006 10:58 AM

This record for Wisconsin may not be as fantastic as it may seem. Of the Old World warblers that have been found in N America (the ABA Area), 3 have been found as fall vagrants south and east of Alaska only along the West Coast in fall including Dusky, Lanceolated and Arctic Warblers- Arctic of course nesting in Siberia and Alaska. The Yellow-browed has a breeding range into Siberia similar to these with a few records in the Aleutians and Gambel Is. in fall. But what is interesting is that Yellow-browed is known for long fall vagrant flights (dispersal flights of juvs?) to western Europe such that it is regular every fall to Spain and Gr. Britain. These are flights of 3000 miles west against the prevailing directions of the weather systems and winds. With a migratory misalignment of only 90 degrees or by the force of a strong flow in a Low moving to the SE such a bird could easily take such a trip to the east.

I have been watching the flow of the jet stream since Sept. 1. Consider the jet as a guiding force for surface weather systems and prevailing winds. It has for most of Sept and early Oct been directly out of NW Canada, extending over Wisconsin. Our prevailing winds after cold fronts have been NW because of the latitudinal positions of systems riding the jet. Now look in your field guides at the summer range and migration corridor of Say's Phoebe- from way up in Alaska south to its wintering areas in the West. There have been several records of Say's in the Midwest besides our Sept bird- such records could easily be facilitated by these strong flows and in fact one would have a hard time finding a better fall pattern than the one we have had to  expect such a vagrant as a Siberian warbler. Remember that Brambling irruptions from their widespread northern Eurasian range occur over thousands of miles to the east and west with our few midwestern records probably of birds that came through Alaska from Siberia. What other species have been taking this "train" into the Midwest?

As we have seen for many years, within only yards of the western shore of Lake Michigan, acting as a barrier to eastward movement by migrants and vagrants, we have a great place to spend our efforts in October and November in both sheltered habit and with flocks struggling to not be blown out over the Lake. Maybe we could occasionally coordinate hiking and driving weekend coverage of these migration traps in local areas- it is still early in the vagrant season.
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Subject: In Search of Yellow-browed Warber
From: "Bob Domagalski" <rcd@execpc.com>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 17:16:30 -0500

    I was working my bird transects until late into the morning and thus did not read the birdnet message about a possible Yellow-browed Warbler until early afternoon.  Once I read the message, I left as soon as possible for the Milwaukee lakefront.

    Arrived north of Bradford Beach about 1 PM and stayed in the area until about 3:30 PM.  Although during that time span I saw a great many birds, I did not see any that might resemble a Yellow-browed Warbler.  None-the-less, it was a great late October day to be birding the lakefront.

    The grass just west from the lakefront plus the grass on the soccer fields (on both the east and west sides of Lake Drive) were hopping with hundreds of Yellow-rumped Warblers, Golden-crowned Kinglets and Ruby-crowned Kinglets.  Walking across these fields, I felt I might step on some of these busy feeders.  The Golden-crowned were especially reluctant to get out of my way.  It was a great late fall day for warblers.  Besides many hundreds of Yellow-rumped, there were a few Palm mixed with the Yellow-rumped, at least 3 Orange-crowned, one Am. Redstart (nearly late enough to deserve a write-up), 2 Ovenbirds and, best of all, a brightly colored Blue-winged Warbler.  If written-up and accepted, this Blue-winged would have only two other records with a date later than Oct. 22nd.  Marlyn Winters was also in the area searching for the Yellow-browed.  She managed to save a tangled Golden-crowned Kinglet from the clutches of a burdock.

    Following is a paste of late dates for the Blue-winged.

        --  Bob Domagalski, Menomonee Falls
--  eight records beyond September
1.  Oct. 1, 1972 – Vernon, Viratine E. Weber
2.  Oct. 4, 1992 – Richland, Barbara F. Duerksen
3.  Oct. 5, 1997 – Outagamie, Jim Anderson & Steven Petznick
4.  Oct. 9, 1959 – Sheboygan, Helmut C. Mueller
5.  Oct. 13, 2001 – Washington, Jackie Nooker
6.  Oct. 17, 1984 – Ozaukee, William J. Cowart
7.  Oct. 31, 1964 – Sheboygan, Helmut C. Mueller
8.  Nov. 10, 1978 – Dane, Philip Ashman
    There is also an October 15, 2006 record from Dane County that has yet to go before the Records Committee.
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Subject: Re: [wisb] In Search of Yellow-browed Warber
From: "Todd Wilson" <maxpaul@earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2006 17:57:33 -0500

I birded much of the same area from Bradford Beach north this afternoon and saw some of the same birds that Bob reported, including the Redstart (I also did not find a Yellow-browed Warbler).

Also other interesting lateish birds were a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher in the clump of trees directly opposite of the Ravine Road, and a Nashville Warbler in the North Point Parking Lot.

Todd Wilson
Milwaukee
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Subject:Gnatcatcher Dates
From:"Bob Domagalski" <rcd@execpc.com>
Date:Sun, 22 Oct 2006 23:01:34 -0500

    If the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher found today (Oct. 22) is reported to the WSO, it is another bird from today's Milwaukee lakefront that would go into the state records was unusually late.  Following is a paste of all valid Blue-gray Gnatcatcher records past October 19th.

    --  Bob Domagalski, Menomonee Falls

--  five records beyond October 19th
1.  Oct. 22, 1988 – Sheboygan, Winnie Woodmansee
2.  Oct. 26, 1973 – La Crosse, Frederick Z. Lesher
3.  Nov. 2, 1999 – Ozaukee, Daryl D. Tessen
4.  Nov. 6, 1949 – Milwaukee, Dixie L. Larkin
5.  Nov. 18, 1975 – Dane, Joseph J. Hickey