Vireos And Warblers Of Late November

On Thursday, November 20 fellow birder Blake Mann discovered a Warbling Vireo while he was birding along the Marsh Trail at Rondeau Provincial Park. If he had found this bird a few months earlier then it would not have caused a stir, but November 20th is a very late date for a Warbling Vireo to be present in the Great Lakes region. I believe that there are only a couple of later records for Ontario. Unfortunately, the vireo vanished before Blake could study it in detail and his photos were not in focus due to the brevity of the encounter.  

However, this Warbling Vireo caught the attention of some members of the birding community for another reason. Earlier this year, the Clement's Bird Checklist (which curates the taxonomy for eBird) accepted the split of Warbling Vireo into two species - Western and Eastern. While Ontario has no official record of Western Warbling Vireo it is a species that should be looked for, as there are several valid records from the east coast of the United States, usually late in the fall or early in the winter. Given the time of year, a Western Warbling Vireo would be a distinct possibility for the Rondeau bird. 

Jude Szabo, a friend of mine who is a fellow resident of Hamilton, was curious if I was interested in looking for the vireo the next day. Jude is in the midst of an Ontario big year and so this was an opportunity he didn't want to pass up in case the vireo was proven to be a Western Warbling Vireo. I had spent the week stuck inside working on my computer and was looking forward to a day of birding so I quickly confirmed my availability. And so before dawn the next morning, we were speeding west down the 401. 

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