Yesterday I reported an unusual-looking warbler at Cromwell. Nothing in the east seemed to fit. But I can tell you this: if I were in the west and saw this bird, I would have automatically checked it off as a 1st-year female Hermit Warbler. Check out the Sibley, but the picture in Kaufman is better, I think, and is what I saw yesterday in the classroom/bowl area behind the house (a private residence?) near the willow-grove stream/bridge.
Another birder almost surely saw the same bird (not far from where I did) around 7:30am and described it as "a yellow headed, light bodied warbler." (I saw it around noon.) I refused to take seriously the Hermit idea--but why not--all kinds of unusual things have been happening. It sort of made more sense than what I had been trying to do--to turn this bird into some kind of hybrid, albino, or fall variation that would fit the "east." I've seen many Hermit out west, and this is what I saw visually, and nothing else fits as well. Of course, it could be something else along the lines of what I was trying to do earlier, something that's more expected, but if I don't mention it, then there is a lesser chance that it could be seen, whatever it is. It could leave soon if it hasn't already. One thing for sure: it was "different."
(Hermit has been reported--see eBird--a few places in NY and MA in the last 20 years, I believe--but not in September.)
Tim Houghton
(Glen Arm)
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