More migrants, more birds on the life list
In twenty short minutes today I added two birds to my life list, once again in a flock of fall migrants. I was taking a quick walk through the woods behind my house, not expecting to see many (if any) birds, but I was pleasantly surprised on that end. I entered the woods and neither heard or saw any birds, save chickadees. But deciding that since I was there, I would press ever onward, hoping for the best. And in less than two minutes later, I had my binoculars trained on a lifer black-and-white warbler. I found myself in the midst of a flock of fall migrants, comprised mostly of blue-gray gnatcatchers, which are fairly common during both spring and fall migration (so I have found). I wrote earlier this year about my first close-up experience with these little blue-gray bundles of energy, here. Besided the already mentioned black-and-white warbler, I also saw the second lifer, a red-eyed vireo. There were many birds in the group, but these were the only three that I was able to identify with 100% certainty (I made the dumb mistake of taking my smaller pair of binoculars because I thought I wouldn't see many birds). Below are some photos, in case you aren't familiar with all of these species yourself.
Black-and-white warbler1
Red-eyed vireo2
1Black-and-white warbler photo by WIlliam H. Majoros via Wikimedia Commons, CC license.
2Red-eyed vireo photo by William H. Majoros via Wikimedia Commons, CC license.