Locality: Circle Creek, Seaside, Clatsop Co.
Dates: Oct 2,2004
Time of Day: between ~12:30
Reporting observers address:
Mike Patterson
1338 Kensington Av.
Astoria, OR 97103
Other observers: I was with 4 birders who were visiting as part of the Lower Columbia Birders bird walk: Marty and Colin Skinner and two folks whose names I failed to get. Steve Warner relocated the bird about 40 minutes later.
Light conditions: bright overcast
Optical equipment: 8x42 Bushnell Binoculars
Distance from bird: less than 30 meters
Duration of observation: about 1 minute
Habitat: Mixed alder spruce wetland.
Behavior: the bird was actively feeding in a Pacific Willow about 10m up. It was keeping company with a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a couple Black-throated Gray Warblers.
Description:
Overall: I was trying to get folks onto a Black-throated Gray Warbler when this bird appeared in my binocular field. I immediately recognized that it was not any common western species from the yellow throat and breast abruptly transitioning to white at the belly and the bright double wingbars.Similar Species:
Head: Greenish-gray, pale yellow supercillium, dark eyeline, greenish cheek and auriculars, nape paler than crown. Throat bright lemon yellow.
Back: Green with darker streaking
Wings: Black with two prominent wingbars, whitish edgings to secondaries and tertials, pale tips to the primaries. Basically lots of brightness to the wings.
Breast: Yellow with smudgy breastband and faint blurry streak to flanks. Yellow transitions to rather abruptly to white at belly.
Belly and undertail coverts: bright white.
Tail: Dark with white corners
Yellow-rumped Warbler: lacked yellow rump, too green above, too yellow below.Previous experience: I have seen adult Blackpoll Warbler at Malheur.
Bay-breasted Warbler: white undertail covers, details of the back and face.
Pine Warbler: details of the face, overall greeness, brightness of the wings, amount of white in tail.
Additional details noted by Steve Warner:
Nearly as large as Yellow-rumped with shorter tail, pale-ish,
straw colored legs.
Additional details from Colin Skinner:
Below is a description of the Blackpoll Warbler seen
we saw
at Circle Creek on Oct 2, 2004 sent to me by Colin Skinner
(~16 years old) to be included in the documentation for
this
bird.
>From Colin Skinner (the_Casualty@comcast.net)
Here is the description of the bird from circle creek:
- Roughly wren sized
- pale greenish yellow on upper-body with yellowish
throat and slight streaking on the breast.
- two white wing bars on dark wings
- a dark eye-line
- white under-tail coverts
- a dark warbler shaped bill
- It was also flicking its tail up and down occasionally.
