Saturday, June 12, 2010

Magnolia Warbler in Fairfield, CT

Magnolia warblers are my FAVORITE warbler (well, aside from Blackburnian Warblers, but I've only seen one once at Mt. Auburn Cemetery). I don't know what it is- the name maybe? "Magnolia" has such nice connotations. And the coloring- I love the yellow with black streaks, and the gray. All the colors come together so nicely.

I decided to look it up on Allaboutbirds.org to see if they had any information about where the name comes from- apparently the name was originally given to them in 1810 by Alexander Wilson who saw one in a Magnolia tree. Funnily enough he took the Black and Yellow Warbler English name, and added Magnolia to its Latin name, which became the predominant name over time.

We went to visit Steve's parents in Fairfield, CT the weekend of May 22-23 so of course I was on high alert for warblers. I noticed the Cedar Waxwings first. They were flying between the trees in his parents' backyard and the top of a dead tree in his neighbor's yard:

I was so excited to hear a warbler in the trees, used my binoculars to see what it was, and then quickly snapped these shots before it flew away. I never saw it again the rest of the weekend.

4 comments:

Dan Huber said...

nice post and photos. Love the historical info on the naming of the warbler.

dan

Dawn Fine said...

yeah..a gorgeous warbler for sure..glad u got some good looks at the beauty!

Hilke Breder said...

Congrats that you managed to get a picture! Warblers move so fast; they never hold still long enough for me.

Kay Baughman said...

Your photos are really nice. I am glad I found your blog--it's like a really good field trip!