Cerulean Warbler, Route 4 Rest Stop, Ira, VT, May 2015

For a number of years I’ve read Ian Worley’s accounts of Cerulean Warblers nesting on Snake Mountain.  I had not made it a priority to chase after them until 2014 when I reached out to Ian to get some details on his birds.  The problem was they didn’t show up that year, so I had unfortunately waited too long to see the Snake Mountain birds.

But then in 2014 I noticed a couple e-bird posts with sightings of Ceruleans at the Route 4 Rest Stop just west of Rutland in the town of Ira.  That spot used to be known for nesting Golden-winged Warblers, and I had successfully seen this rare and declining species there back in 1995.  Unfortunately those birds are no longer at the Rest Stop since the woodlands have grown up quite a bit.  I didn’t try for the Ceruleans there in 2014 mostly because the directions were a bit vague.  But then reports of birds at the same spot started to come across in May 2015, with some good details on their locations.  So I decided it was finally time to try for Ceruleans in VT.  I got some micro-directions from a local birder, and 2 birds were singing there the day before my trip, so I was cautiously optimistic.

I arrived at 8 after a 2 ½ hour drive, and quickly headed to the top of the hill above the Rest Stop where the birds were most often heard and seen.  There was a lot of song in the area, with the most common species being Redstart, Ovenbird, Veery, Wood Thrush, and Rose-breasted Grosbeak.  Within a couple minutes I heard 2 distant Cerulean songs off in the distance to the north.  That was good enough to check it off my VT list, but since this is a bird I don’t hear or see very often, I wanted to spend some more time with them.  Since they had been regular there, I figured I wouldn’t have to wait too long.

However, I spent the next two hours in this immediate area and never heard or saw them after the 2 initial songs.  The closest I could get were at least 2 Redstarts that were giving superficially similar songs.  I ended up with nearly 40 species including 9 species of warblers – 1 of which was a skulking female Mourning Warbler.  Not bad for a 2-hour long “big sit”.  Though I sure wish the Ceruleans had cooperated.  I remember Ian mentioning his birds would stop singing pretty early in the season as nesting was progressing.  Maybe that’s what the birds at the Rest Stop were doing now – or perhaps they were just being very uncooperative the day I was there.

Cerulean Warbler was #269 for my VT list.  That was almost exactly 20 years since the last time I was at the Route 4 Rest Stop, when Golden-winged Warbler was VT bird #146 for me.  VT was my 20th state for Cerulean, which I guess isn’t too bad for this declining species.