Thanks Jim for finding this MEGA rarity, and thank you Matt for
posting.  Here are my takeaways from today's encounter with this
warbler.

-I observed it briefly approx. four times, both perched (*if you can
call it perched) and in flight.  Note: for me, the bird was either
flying IN to or OUT of a 'waterbush'.  What's a waterbush?  You got
me, but  if this helps... it's where one would find Orange-Crowned
Warblers most often in the winter down on the coast.
-When this bird was the bush, it was deep IN it, only occasionally
venturing out to the outer edges, then it would fly a fair distance,
low and direct.
-As mentioned before, it behaves/forages a little bit like a Blue-gray
Gnatcatcher, with a nervous jerky movements (it wasn't lounging on a
limb like the numerous sparrows), and that tail-flicking was similar
to what one would expect from a Palm Warbler.
-It chipped a lot, IMO.  This bird has a very distinctive chip note,
and once I connected the chip with the chipper, it made finding this
bird a bit easier.  Listen TO it ahead of your visit and then listen
FOR it in the field.  When it was not foraging, the bird was either
quiet (or someplace else).

What an amazing bird and an incredible find!  Congratulations Jim! And
most important...

Best of luck all!

Dan Haas
St. Margaret's, MD
nervousbirdatgmail.com

On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 7:47 PM, Ed Boyd <> wrote:
> Jim Stasz, I'm sure, will post more about this later but I want to clear up
> a couple of things. The actual date that this bird was first observed by Jim
> and me was January 26th, not December 26th. When we saw the bird it was in
> much poorer lighting than today and we didn't get to see the bird for long.
> I had it in my camera's viewfinder and I snapped an image moments after the
> bird dove from its perch and did not get an shot. We searched for quite some
> time after spotting the bird and never got another clean look at it. We
> first identified the bird as a Virginia's Warbler based on what we felt was
> a gray bird with a white eye-ring and yellow undertail coverts. During our
> search we briefly saw a bird that we felt was a Western Palm and wrote the
> first bird off as that and figured it was just due to poor lighting,
> certainly the bird couldn't have been what we thought we had seen.
>
> Obviously that isn't the case considering the looks obtained when the bird
> was spotted by Jim and others this afternoon. At about 5 o'clock I had a
> warbler fly up into a leafless tree about 10 yards away from me but the
> setting sun was directly in line with it. The bird flew off to the north and
> it was then that I was able to see that the bird had bright yellow coverts,
> so it seems that the bird is really favoring the location where we had it 3
> weeks ago and it had been seen earlier today.
>
> Good luck to all the search. Jim's picture is certainly identifiable but
> hopefully someone will better documentation.
>
> Ed Boyd
> Chestnut Hill Cove, MD
>
>
> On 2/15/2012 7:02 PM, Les Roslund wrote:
>>
>> Maryland Birders - This afternoon Jim Stasz found a Virginia's Warbler
>> along
>> the Pickering Creek path between the parking lot and the first pond
>> observation platform.  First he had just a glimpse.  A bit later he got a
>> longer look and managed a very convincing photograph.   That occurred
>> around
>> 2:30 p.m.  By 4:00 he was joined by Dan Haas, Phil Davis and myself, and
>> we
>> four attained reasonable though not awesome views of the bird.  I stayed
>> until 5:30 at which time there were 10 cars in the parking lot, but no
>> additional views of the bird had been made.
>>
>>
>>
>> Virginia's Warbler is a bird of the far west, often in mountainous areas.
>>  I
>> saw some in New Mexico several years ago.  This Pickering Creek sighting
>> is
>> the first ever for Maryland, and possibly only the third recorded east of
>> the Mississippi River.
>>
>>
>>
>> Stasz, with Ed Boyd, had seen this bird on Dec 26, 2011, but could not
>> believe their eyes, so crossed it off as a Palm Warbler.  This time they
>> got
>> the photograph.  In view of the December sighting, in almost exactly the
>> same bushes where it was seen today, there is reason to believe the bird
>> has
>> been here all that time, and hence it really ought to still be here for at
>> least the next few days.  It was last seen near the tall cedar trees south
>> of the old barn.  Prior to that it had moved from bush to bush in the
>> adjacent shrubs, and used shrubs on either side of the path.  It seemed to
>> be favoring groundsel bushes but also used some of the multiflora roses.
>>  It
>> was never farther down the path than about half way to the pond platform.
>> It was staying at eye-level or below,  was characterized by straight-line
>> flight, had a long tail which it wagged when perched, looked grey overall
>> unless on was looking through a scope, had a very fine bill, and had some
>> resemblance to a Gnatcatcher.  Kind of nervous and jumpy behavior like the
>> Gnatcatcher also.
>>
>>
>>
>> With luck this bird should come out to feed along that path tomorrow
>> morning.
>>
>>
>>
>> Les Roslund
>>
>>
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