David Wade was nice enough to let me know about his Worm-eating Warbler at McMurry NA in Fort Collins this morning. I got over there and spent most of the afternoon multi-tasking: coincidentally trying for birds and hypothermia. I failed to see the Worm-eating, but stuck around after other birders left trying a little bit more for this great bird. About 100 yards west of the McMurry parking lot in a thicket on the north side of the trail I heard a chip. The bird popped up briefly and was a male MOURNING WARBLER. I also heard a Yellow-breasted Chat well north of the trail, perhaps off McMurry property.
I went home, took a hot bath, changed to a new set of dry clothes and tried again for the Worm-eating about 6pm. Nick Komar, Austin Hess, David Wade, and Rob Sparks all showed up. Most of the good birds from earlier in the day were refound, including the Mourning and the Worm-eating (Nick). Also seen were an Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush, multiple Gray Catbirds, Blackpoll Warbler (Nick), a number of Swainson's Thrushes, empids, Western Wood-Pewees, Yellow Warblers, Veery, Brown Creepers (one seen feeding another in an apparent display of courtship behavior and both David, Josh Bruening, and Rob have reported seeing these birds at this location during recent visits - further evidence of breeding at an unusually low elevation), Broad-winged Hawk, and one thrush which I will leave to Nick to describe (I never saw it). David Wade got an ID photo of the Worm-eating. I thought I had done the same for the Mourning until the camera message said "No Card In Camera". Not sure if any of the others got an identifiable photo of the Mourning, although all in the late group got identifiable binocular looks.
Dave Leatherman
Fort Collins