Dave,
   Though it is unusual to have Nashville Warblers this early it is not extraordinary.  My records show at least 14 reports in the last third of August, some of these banding records.  The Yellow Book shows August 18 as an early date and there are earlier reports now.  The migration period will be easier to show in a revised Yellow Book because I believe Nashville Warbler no longer breeds in Maryland and has not been found during the current Atlas (Walter Ellison please correct me if I'm wrong).  I believe the fact that three were reported today reflects more people birding in mid week after the passage of a cold front rather than any remarkable number of early Nashvilles.  Still a good find on September 1!
   It's too early to make any general comments about the migration but what has struck me even more about the early reports are three of Blue-headed Vireo so far, a bird that usually appears even later than Nashville Warbler.

>
> From: David Mozurkewich <>
> Date: 2004/09/01 Wed PM 04:23:24 EDT
> To: 
> Subject: [MDOSPREY] Nashville Warblers ????
>
> To me, September 1 seems an awfully early date for migrant Nashville
> Warblers.  In fact the one I saw along Indian Creek this morning (Prince
> George's county near Lake Artemesia) is my earliest fall record EVER for
> this area.  With that background, what do we make of it being the THIRD
> one reported in this forum today?
>
> Because the species nests in western Maryland, nothing useful about early
> arrival dates can be gleaned from the bar charts in the yellow-book.  (A
> defect I hope will be fixed in the next edition.)  Though a bit dated,
> Stewart and Robbins (1958) is much more useful for answering this kind of
> question.  For fall migration, they list the EXTREME arrival date as ---
> SEPTEMBER 4.  My copy of the Virginia checklist (1987) has fall arrival
> for that state on September 5.
>
> So what's going on here?  Is Stewart and Robbins wrong?  Are Nashville
> Warblers migrating earlier than they used to?  Or is this shaping up to be
> a really weird fall migration?
>
> Dave
> David Mozurkewich
> Seabrook, PG MD USA
> mozurk @ bellAtlantic.net
>

Bob Ringler
Eldersburg MD