2019 Spring Warbler Migration

It was another fantastic spring for warblers, in Milwaukee County. The weather was not very good, with most days being cloudy. Things started out fairly early, with 13 warbler species coming through the area April 20th-26th, along with some nice mild weather. Then it turned back to the classic weather pattern of northeast winds every day for the next couple weeks. It wasn’t until May 5th, that we got another decent push of new warblers. From then on, the weather didn’t really cooperate, but the warblers did! I had 20+ species every day for the next two weeks. May 15th was by far the best day for species and numbers of warblers. I was stuck at work early in the day, but left by noon and stopped at Doctor’s Park. It was really good there, but for some reason, every random person in the park felt the need to come up to me and ask what I was taking pictures of. That doesn’t really help when I’m trying to sneak around and get close to them. So, I left and went to Lake Park. From 2:30-7:30pm, I had 99 species and 27 warblers. I think it was the best single day that I’ve seen, in my life. Every tree had 10 or more warblers, and not just Yellow-rumped or Palm. It was absolutely incredible that day. For the spring, I ended up with 34 species, including 3 sub-species. All of them were seen in Milwaukee, except one, which was the Kirtland’s Warbler (Adams County). I think my best find this spring was a beautiful male Yellow-throated Warbler. I put my binoculars on him and said his name in my head and moved on to the next warbler. Then I was like, wait a minute, what??? I got him in view again and couldn’t believe it, it really was one! On top of that, he even gave me some good photo ops. I found him at Grant Park (Wil-o-Way), around 6pm on May 6th. A few other cool finds were a Brewster’s Warbler on May 15th, at Lake Park, and a odd Palm Warbler at Warnimont Park on May 7th. Instead of it being yellow in the face and neck, it was orange! I have never seen anything like it. I also had two big misses this spring, a Prairie and a Kentucky Warbler, both seen on days that I was at the parks. I took over 30,000 photos again this spring, trying to capture the warblers in their most natural state, whether it’s eating, preening, bathing or singing. I also try to get both male and female of each and sometimes I get lucky with first spring birds that are just starting to show their colors. I have a lot of photos below, so take your time when going through them, to see the differences between males, females, and first year birds, as well as some behavior/action shots. I will list each warbler that I saw this spring, which you can also click on to go to their page, for an extended gallery. Hope you enjoy!

• American Redstart
• Bay-breasted Warbler
• Black-and-white Warbler
• Blackburnian Warbler
• Blackpoll Warbler
• Black-throated Blue Warbler
• Black-throated Green Warbler
• Blue-winged Warbler
• Brewster’s Warbler
• Canada Warbler
• Cape May Warbler
• Cerulean Warbler
• Chestnut-sided Warbler
• Common Yellowthroat
• Connecticut Warbler
• Golden-winged Warbler
• Hooded Warbler
• Kirtland’s Warbler
• Louisiana Waterthrush
• Magnolia Warbler
• Mourning Warbler
• Nashville Warbler
• Northern Parula
• Northern Waterthrush
• Orange-crowned Warbler
• Ovenbird
• Palm Warbler
• Pine Warbler
• Prothonotary Warbler
• Tennessee Warbler
• Wilson’s Warbler
• Worm-eating Warbler
• Yellow Warbler
• Yellow-rumped Warbler
• Yellow-throated Warbler