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Pat Harding of Medicine Hat, Alberta, had the day off on Friday, November 7, 2008. It was a beautiful, mild day with no wind. A Northern Shrike was lurking in a nearby apple tree in the morning, so she didn’t expect to see many birds at her feeder that day. However, in the afternoon she spotted an unfamiliar bird outside her kitchen window.
Her first thought was, “wait a minute – this is not usual.”
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Pat took out her binoculars and her guide to Western birds, but she could not find a similar bird in the book. Fortunately, she always keeps her camera close at hand and managed to capture several pictures of the bird.
The bird spent the afternoon nibbling grapes Pat had put out a few days earlier and visiting her silo feeder filled with mixed bird seed. Four Black-capped Chickadees and several House Finches ate at the feeder as well, but the rare bird was not intimidated and appeared to be lively and in good health. |
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Yellow-throated Warbler by Pat Harding |
| Pat emailed her photos to local Grasslands Naturalist Club member Phil Horch, who identified the bird as a Yellow-throated Warbler, a southeastern warbler which typically spends its winters as far south as Central America and the Caribbean. |
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Pat took out her guide to Eastern birds, and it matched perfectly. (Based on the photos, the bird has since been identified as the albilora subspecies.)
Phil Horch forwarded Pat's photos to the Alberta rare bird committee and to the Federation of Alberta Naturalists. The next day, three people came to see the rare visitor—one person drove ten hours! Despite two days of looking, the rare warbler was not seen again. |
Yellow-throated Warbler by Pat Harding |
There has only been one other confirmed report of a Yellow-throated Warbler in Alberta on September 9-10, 2006, where it was spotted in a residential area of Calgary.
See Pat's rare bird sighting and other reports from this FeederWatch season on the Rare Bird page. |
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