Grace's Warbler

[Hustace Scott]

I was showing another birder, Bob Anderson,  around the Dirty Shirt Woods, and we were having a great day when we saw 2 warblers squabbling in a Ponderosa.  I looked at the beautiful male Audubon's, and Bob said his was not an Audubon's.  I looked and saw a very yellow throat and 2 strong wingbars.  Neither one of us had any idea what we had just seen, so we figured if two decent birders did not know what they had seen we had better get good looks.  It was singing fairly regularly, so we were able to track it down.  Finally, we got a good look as it worked on the end of a branch of a Ponderosa.  It had a bright yellow throat with a white belly, 2 strong wingbars, no noticeable stripes on the front of the bird, yellow in the eyebrow, and gray around the eye, but no black.  A Grace's Warbler, and a life bird for me.

We were on the east side of the Dirty Shirt Woods, probably about 1/4 mile up from the edge of the woods.  The last time we saw the bird it was less than 100 yards from the east side of the woods.  It was singing enough that we could refind the bird after it flew.  We saw it about noon.  Bob Anderson is going to put the GPS coordinates in his ebird report.  I will tell my son, Ben, to expect birders looking for this warbler.  Birders will not need additional permission to cross Eagle Ridge Ranch land.

We do ask that you not use play back of bird songs or harass the other birds.  There are also Pinyon Jays with young in the area, and they are very sensitive to disturbance at this time of year.

Below is a list of what we saw.

Morning Dove

Nighthawk

Turkey Vulture

Golden Eagle

Cooper's Hawk

Flicker

Western Wood-pewee

Plumbeous Vireo

Pinyon Jay

Clark's Nutcracker

Black-capped Chickadee

White-brested Nuthatch

House Wren

Rock Wren

Robin

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Grace's Warbler

Western Tanager

Green-tailed Towhee

Chipping Sparrow

Lark Sparrow

Meadowlark

Red Crossbill

Pine Siskin

Stacey Scott

Casper

[Donald Jones]

Congratulations to Stacey and Bob on an amazing discovery! I was lucky enough to be driving thru Casper on my way back from work yesterday, and was able to see the Grace's Warbler around noon, in exactly the same spot as Stacey describes. It was not singing, but it was calling quite frequently which is what first alerted me to its presence.

Thank you, Bob and Stacey, for finding this spectacular bird, getting the word out quickly, and arranging access for birders!

Good birding,

Don Jones

Laramie

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