Golden-winged Warbler and Henslow’s Sparrow in West Virginia, June 2014

With yet another trip to western PA I made my fourth trek down to WV this year to work on my state list.  I once again teamed up with Morgantown birder Terry Bronson for local birdfinding advice.  Given our past successes, my realistic target list was getting pretty short – Golden-winged Warbler, Henslow’s Sparrow, and my nemesis bird Great Horned Owl.  Given that we had just an afternoon available, Terry decided to take me to northern Preston County, quite close to the borders of both PA and MD in northeast WV.  There were some pretty good historic locations for the warbler and sparrow in this area.  But as we approached he tempered my enthusiasm saying that he had not seen the Golden-winged at that spot in a couple years, and no one had seen Henslow’s at the second spot this year. 

The location for the Golden-winged was along a narrow rough road called Planeing Mill Road, named after a former logging mill.  We drove up hill and arrived at the area for the warbler, which was an old mining site that had scattered young saplings up to about 15 feet tall.  Golden-wings generally prefer trees that are a bit older and bigger than the kind preferred in Blue-winged habitat, which was certainly the case here.  Terry took me to “the” spot where there have been Golden-wings in the past, though he stressed that we would need to be lucky for one to be reasonably close to the road.  We walked the road a bit but had no warblers.  Then I played a bit of tape and almost instantly heard a “winged” warbler respond with the alternate Golden-winged song.  But since both warblers and their hybrids can sing Blue-winged and Golden-winged songs, we needed a visual.  Not more than 30 seconds later a bird flew into a nearby sapling and there it was – a male Golden-winged Warbler.  They have to be one my favorite warblers.  We watched it for maybe a minute when rain and thunder caused us to run back to the car.  WV is my 16th state for this species (see my statebird map below), though many of my sightings are quite old when this species was more numerous.

We then drove a short distance away to Beech Run Road in search of the Henslow's Sparrows.  This site was another former mine site, which had apparently been replanted with grasses and brushy trees that looked like Russian Olives.  When we arrived at the key spot where the sparrows had been seen in the past we saw that the olives were now quite large (6 ft or taller).  That sure didn’t look appropriate for Henslow’s habitat since they prefer grasslands with some scattered low woody plants to perch on while singing.  We heard and saw Grasshopper, Field, and Savannah Sparrows and a Prairie Warbler in this habitat, but no Henslow’s.  We were hampered by some rain showers, but I didn’t think that caused us to miss the Henslow’s. 

Terry suggested we drive a bit farther ahead and we got to an extensive area of mature hayfields.  The area looked more like habitat for Grasshoppers than Henslow’s since there weren’t any obvious woody plants among the grasses, so I wasn’t too optimistic.  It was raining again, and as we sat in the car to wait out the shower, I rolled my window down and almost instantly heard what sounded like a Henslow’s Sparrow call from the hayfield.  I was a little suspect given the habitat, but I heard it call again, along with a second more distant bird.  I scanned the field and began to notice some milkweed plants and very small woody plants, so I guess it was just enough for the Henslow’s.  Farther down the road we had Henslow’s calling at 2 other spots, with a total count of 8 calling birds, though we never saw any of them.  My statebird map for Henslow’s is pretty spotty for this bird which is very local both in its breeding and wintering ranges.

That evening I got some suggested locations for Great Horned Owl from Terry, and decided to check one spot a short distance outside of Morgantown.  No luck with my nemesis bird once again, though I did find 2 juvenile Barred Owls nearby.  Don’t know how many times I’ve tried for Great Horned in WV.  I just need this species in DC, IN, and WV to complete the “lower 49”.

It was just 2 new species for WV, but they were 2 special ones that I don’t see very often.  That gives me 198 for WV – 20 over the old ABA threshold.  Not sure when I’ll be back to bird in WV but sure would be nice to be able to get to 200, and of course get a Great Horned Owl.