Tennessee Warbler

A nice sunny day (though I noticed the sun wasn’t packing much punch, only 6 weeks from solstice) and my dad needed the car, so I biked to Moller Park for ultimate. I had decided to take a slight detour to check on the Marbled Godwit that has been hanging out near True Value when I was distracted by a warbler before I got there. It was hanging low moving between the ground and small bushes growing at the edge of the drop-off of the narrow outbound alley alongside True Value. I always want to check late fall warblers, so I stopped and took a quick look through my binoculars. I saw enough to be convinced that it was not one of our usual suspects. I tried to manage getting my bike out of the way, my camera out and lens changed to the long telephoto all as quickly as I could while not losing track of the bird.

By the time I had my camera ready to go, it had flown up the alley to a decent-sized shrub along the main road. I could see it moving around in there, but it did not cooperate for a photo (or I wasn’t fast enough) before flying across the busy road. Fortunately it didn’t fly far, and I managed to suppress the urge to dart out in front of traffic. I was able to get a few photos of it as it foraged on the ground in front of the old Moore Clinic.

I’m reasonably confident this is a Tennessee Warbler (overall yellow/green, white undertail coverts, no wing bars or anything), but would be happy to get corrected.

I did get back to see the Marbled Godwit (which I had already heard was still there) – it’s made it for a new late date for the state, I think. I also saw the continuing Northern Mockingbird when I went by the neighborhood where it’s been hanging out.

2 thoughts on “Tennessee Warbler”

  1. Im pretty sure the Tennesse Warbler was what I used to see in alder trees behind my apartment at spruce grove. There are alder trees ( or used to be , not sure if the trees are still there) bordering the backside of the apartments, in between the aparments and the trailor park/modular home area. This was about 4 years ago but I have never spotted small yellow birds since moving to another place in Sitka. Good pictures.

  2. Thanks Heather – another possibility to consider is the Orange-crowned Warbler. It’s a similar looking bird, but much more common in Sitka. They like to hang out in the alder trees.

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