Worm-eating/Prairie Warblers - Berrien Co. 5/19

[kipnsuz at comcast.net]

Berrien County - May 19

Greetings,

I and several other folks heard and saw what might be a chaseable Worm-eating Warbler in Warren Dunes State Park today. 

To look for it, park in the youth campground parking area on Floral Lane, a short road off of Red Arrow Highway about 1.5 miles north of the main park entrance. Walk to the west end of Floral Lane and continue to the west on the Blue Jay Trail. The bird was singing and foraging up on the left about the point where the trail forks as it climbs the back side of the wooded dunes. (Just 100 yards or so from the end of the road....) If you don't hear it, you might want to continue up the left fork and take the first trail to the left. This follows the top of the ridge and would provide a good location to listen for the bird in adjacent dune valleys.

If a Prairie Warbler is of interest take the right fork up into the open dunes. (It's a steep but short climb....) A pair seems to be on territory in the first open area encountered - and in fact could be easily heard today from the Worm-eating Warbler location.

Another good and easily accessible location for Prairie Warbler at Warren Dunes is just south of the main beach parking lots. Enter the main park entrance and follow the entrance road to the beach parking lots. Turn left into the southern-most parking area and park by the pit toilet on the lot's southern edge. A pair are currently present in the dune swale just south of here. A good way to view them is to follow the short cut trail from the parking lot back to the access road and watch for them from the edge of the access road. No dune hiking required!

Good birding,

Kip Miller
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