Life histories of North American wood warblers, Part 1 (of 2)Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American wood warblers, Part 1 (of 2)
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- North America; Passeriformes; Wood warblers
_Spring._--Cape May warblers leave their winter home in the West Indies
in March and pass through the Bahamas and Florida in March and April,
northward along the Atlantic coast, and branch out westward to southern
Missouri and up through the Mississippi Valley to Minnesota and Canada.
Very few stop to settle much short of the Canadian border. Dr. Chapman
(1907) writes of the spring migration: "In early May in Florida, I have
seen this species actually common, feeding in weedy patches among a rank
growth of poke-berries. It seemed like wanton extravagance on the part
of nature to bring so many of these generally rare creatures within
one's experience in a single morning. Both on the east and west coasts
of the State the bird is at times a common migrant, possibly bound for
its summer home by way of the Mississippi Valley, where it is more
numerous than in the north Atlantic States."
Amos W. Butler (1898) says:
The Cape May Warbler is generally considered a rare bird everywhere.
While this is true, and some years it is altogether absent, there are
years when it is common and even abundant. In Indiana it appears as a
migrant, perhaps more numerous in fall than spring. * * * Some years
with us they are found upon the drier uplands, among the oak woods,
where they usually keep among the lower branches or upon the high bushes
and smaller trees. They are not very active, but keep persistently
hunting insects. At other times, we find them among our orchards, even
coming into towns, where they occupy themselves catching insects among
the foliage and about the blossoms of all kinds of shade and fruit
trees.
In Ohio, according to Milton B. Trautman (1940), "the bird was uncommon
in every spring except 1, and seldom more than 10 individuals were noted
in a day. Between May 14 and 20, 1926, the species was very numerous
throughout central Ohio. On May 16 I noted at least 40 individuals in
Lakeside Woods, and it was evident that hundreds were present in the
area on that day." Referring also to Ohio, W. F. Henninger (1918)
writes: "This year, on May 25, 1917, we entered a large patch of woods
about half a mile from the Grand Reservoir early in the morning, just
when the fog had barely raised above the treetops, and the warblers were
fairly swarming there, among them numbers of Cape May's. I counted more
than fifty, but got tired counting and then gave it up, after taking a
fine pair." Rev. J. J. Murray (MS.) refers to this warbler as common in
the vicinity of Lexington, Va., in the spring from April 29 to May 18,
where it seems to prefer conifers at that season.
I have seen the Cape May warbler fairly common in Florida at times and I
have collected it there, but I have never seen it in my corner of
Massachusetts. Mr. Forbush (1929) tells the story very well for this
State:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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