Fish Crow, Worm-eating Warbler - Berrien Co. 5/25

[Kip or Suzanne Miller]

Birders, 



I led a group of adventurous birders into the far northern parts of Warren Dunes State Park - via Weko Beach in Bridgman - this morning and successfully located the second of the two Worm-eating Warblers noted in Brad Anderson's post at the bottom of this message. There was no sight (or sound) of the first mentioned. It's a beautiful, but rather confusing area to explore as there are a number of trails, none of which are marked or on a trail map. Brad has also located two other probable Worm-eating Warblers further south in the park, including one near the west end of the Mt. Randall Trail - which can be accessed from the main beach parking lots. 



Following this adventure my intention was to give the possible Fish Crow at the Forest Lawn Landfill another shot and a voice mail message from Caleb Putnam "on the scene" spurred me on even faster. I arrived and spent a couple of unsuccessful hours with him and Alison Vilag on the west side of the landfill, where they had seen and heard what they believed was the Fish Crow. (I'm sure Caleb will provide more details in the near future.) I stayed just briefly after they left with no luck, but as I walked back to my car along the landfill's south fence, I heard what sounded like a Fish Crow and saw a smaller crow being chased by two larger crows. Shortly thereafter a single crow flew directly overhead and landed in a dead tree just south of Martin Road, seemingly in response to my Fish Crow tape playback. It eventually gave several typical Fish Crow calls and then did so again when it took off and flew off to the south into Indiana. 



On the way home I heard several Dickcissels in the field at the intersection of Mill and Kruger Roads and another further north on Mill, just south of Elm Valley Road. 



Good birding, 



Kip Miller 



To: bbclist at andrews.edu 
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 
Subject: BBCLIST: Worm-eating Warbler (x2), WDSP, 5/23/09 

Hello, 
Some detail on the location of the two singing worm-eating warblers: 

Take the trail south from the primitive campsite at Weko in Bridgman 
(south side of road).  The trail continues south through a valley.  There 
is a stand of hemlocks and it was near there that I saw/heard the bird 
singing, although it was silent until I made my way up the dune and took 
the left fork. 

The second bird was singing from a valley to the east.  The trail bends to 
the east along the stand of hemlocks.  There is another fork to the left 
and that bends to the east just past the hemlocks (ends up at the picnic 
area near entry to Weko).  There is a valley to your right where the bird 
was singing yesterday.  I wasn't able to see this one as it stayed low in 
the vegetation.  (I originally heard the 2nd bird by following the 
original trail, in that case the bird was on the left where the trail 
bends to the southwest.  The two trails are roughly parallel for a ways.) 

Brad Anderson 
Bridgman 






---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- 
Subject: BBCLIST: Worm-eating Warbler (x2), WDSP, 5/23/09 
From:    bwh19096 at qtm.net 
Date:    Sat, May 23, 2009 12:59 pm 
To:      bbclist at andrews.edu 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

Birders, 

This morning I found two worm-eating warblers in the north end of Warren 
Dunes State Park. 


Brad Anderson 
Bridgman 



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