[US states and territories. 2007 to 2019]
This blogger's first warbler Lifer was a Yellow Warbler observed on May 12th, 2007 in Michigan. But it wasn't until 2010 (barring a wintering Black-and-white lifer seen in Southwest Florida in 2009), that a maiden May trip to Magee Marsh resulted in the following 6 additional Lifers:
- Chestnut-sided
- Black-throated Blue
- Blackpoll
- Magnolia
- American Redstart
- Canada Warbler
Having taken 3 years to get to 8, the lifers would steadily accumulate by 47 more warblers over a long period of nine years. When the lifelist finally hit 55 warblers by 2019, it marked the glorious culmination of a quest to photodocument all regularly occurring warblers in the US.
Indeed, this goal was substantially complete by 2013 but the last few stragglers remained elusive; and, the final capstone warbler species -- the notorious Connecticut Warbler -- finally relented by offering a quick observation opportunity in 2019. As the archetypical nemesis bird, the Connecticut sighting broke a 3-year curse of zero warbler lifers in 2016, 2017 and 2018.
How did this quest unfold? Many species can be observed in migration at Magee Marsh (Northwest Ohio). However, many others demand unqualified obeisance on their own turf. Trips were planned and travel ensued to San Antonio, TX (Golden-cheeked), Southern Virginia (Swainson's), the Chisos Mountains (Colima), the Arizona Sky Islands (Red-faced Warbler, Olive Warbler and other specialties), Alaska (Orange-crowned) and Puerto Rico (Adelaide's and Elfin-woods).
The tally by Warbler lifers by year:
- 2007: 1 lifer
- 2009: 1 lifer
- 2010: 7 lifers
- 2011: 11 lifers
- 2012: 14 lifers
- 2013: 15 lifers
- 2014: 3 lifers
- 2015: 2 lifers
- 2016: 0
- 2017: 0
- 2018: 0
- 2019: 1 lifer
And, here is the detail on how we got here:
Note: these were all found on US territory (Adelaide's and Elfin-woods are in Puerto Rico). Some warblers are no longer placed in Parulidae (eg., Olive, Yellow-breasted Chat) while some are considered subspecies but once had full-species status (ie., Myrtle and Audubon's) and finally, some are hybrids (Brewster's and Lawrence's).
Among acclaimed birding personalities, some have seen all species in their home state; others, their home country; still others have towering lifelists that span the globe. In humble comparison, photodocumenting all 55 US warbler species is no feat of mastery, yet in its own meager way, it is nevertheless a notable, perhaps even celebratable, marker in this blogger's pursuit of a passion in birding.
Thus, without further ado, we now present the 55 in alphabetical order (see also the blogger's Flickr album):
Adelaide's
While passion can fuel such a quest, it must be kept in mind that birding as a process and activity cannot be circumscribed by mere metrics or milestones. Nevertheless, a goal, however inconsequential it may appear to others, can hold tremendous significance in one's own birding development. And, such was indeed the case with the observation of this blogger's 55th warbler -- a Connecticut -- which marked the culmination of a long cherished quest to see all warbler species in the US.
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