Adam Miller had found a Kentucky Warbler yesterday behind the Slateford Historical Farm in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. I got there around 7:30 AM and immediately heard the bird singing in the same area. I was trying to get a look at it as it sang regularly when I got a call from Adam. He, Adam Smith, and his son Owen Smith had a bird singing loudly that they couldn't quite identify and wanted to know if I was in the area. Amazingly, I was only about about a hundred yards away and quickly met up with them. The bird sang very loudly and sounded like a Louisiana Waterthrush but with a more abrupt ending. Adam Smith suggested that it might be a Swainson's Warbler. A check of that song matched perfectly. It moved farther up the trail and despite it sounding like we were only a few feet away from it, none of us could see it. It then moved farther uphill away from the trail in the thick brush. Adam Miller decided to push his way through and eventually saw it and got a quick, poor photo of it, but it was good enough to confirm that the bird was indeed a Swainson's Warbler! Alerts were sent out and eventually several birders showed up to try and get a look at this skulker. I never did get to see the bird even though I was within feet of it. It would sing loudly from just underneath the brush that it was perched in. Mike Schall got some pretty good photos of it. They can be seen by going to his eBird checklist. There are only a few records of this warbler for Northampton County.
Other birds found in the area included Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Pileated Woodpecker, Acadian Flycatcher, Scarlet Tanager, Indigo Bunting, and other notable warblers that included Ovenbird, Hooded, Blue-winged, Tennessee, Blackpoll, Bay-breasted, Magnolia, Black-throated Green, and Louisiana Waterthrush.
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