Someone recently asked if you can find Cape May or Bay-breasted 
Warblers in spring around Baltimore: the answer is Yes, but very 
rarely in my experience. I think I have only seen 5 or 6 of each in 
this area in spring in 20 years of pretty active local birding. Rock 
Creek seems to catch them and catapult them directly to their northern 
homes. In fact, I have had little luck finding them even in their home 
turf, like Quebec or New Brunswick in June.

I was reading a report the other day on the Michigan birding email 
list concerning a trip to Point Pelee, Ontario, where someone said 
they experienced "the most amazing migration of Cape May Warbler that 
I have ever seen (or heard). On Friday we had at least 27 with a 
greater number of Bay-breasted Warblers." This seems consistent with 
our Maryland reports this spring. I came across this after reading 
that ex-Baltimore birder Cathy Carroll had a 19-warbler day near 
Detroit the other day, after a long dry spell. Hello, and happy to 
hear that, Cathy.

Anyway, I returned to Middle Patuxent Environmental Area this morning 
in hopes of hearing or seeing the Gray-cheeked/Bicknell's Thrush. I 
even brought my tape recorder, just in case. But - no luck. As 
compensation I got extended good looks at a singing Bay-breasted 
Warbler, about halfway to the river on the left fork. I even got some 
decent recordings to compare with the similar-sounding Redstarts. I'm 
lucky to get a decent look at a Bay-breasted in spring once every few 
years. Yet this was my second good look this season. Basically, it 
sounded like a wimpy, high-pitched Redstart, and I would still be 
hesitant to list it by ear alone. Compared to the Stokes CD version of 
Bay-breasted, it was faster and briefer. The one we saw a few weeks 
ago at Milford Mill was virtually identical to the Stokes version.

Now comes the shocker. For many weeks in conversations with Paul Noell 
and others, I have been maligning the tulip-tree as a sterile, 
bird-less tree while Paul has been staunchly defending it. I have 
better luck finding good birds at McDonald's, like - say - the Cape 
May Warbler I found at McDonald's a week or so ago (which was Cape May 
number two for me this spring.)

Well, I have to confess, today's Bay-breasted Warbler spent the entire 
five to ten minutes I was watching it in the underside of the crown of 
one or another tulip-trees, making itself easily seen despite the 
density of those big leaves. I'm sure, though, this was a fluke that 
will never happen again!

Steve Sanford
Randallstown MD (Balto Co)
scartanATverizonDOTnet