Today, Jared and I trekked to a park in eastern Maryland with the hopes of catching a glimpse of a Virginia's Warbler. This small, grey warbler normally lives in the southwestern Rocky Mountain states. This is the first time a Virginia's Warbler has EVER been spotted in Maryland, so the birding community came out of the woodwork to go see it.
Jared's photo from Saturday
Jared had already seen it on Saturday (and got one decent photo), so this trip was all for me. Since it had first been spotted, the Virginia's Warbler had been seen regularly a few times a day along a marshy path, but its behavior was very erratic. We knew it could be a long waiting game, so we bundled up and joined the crowd of birders around 8:45am. To our frustration, we found out we had just missed seeing the bird earlier in the morning. Fast forward three hours later, and still no Virginia's Warbler. I was pretty hungry, so we decided to hedge our bets and leave to grab some food, returning an hour later to search some more. Thankfully, we didn't miss anything while we were gone.
Cue more cold and more waiting. However, here comes the awesome part: about half an hour later, Jared was the first to spot the the bird flying over the path, chirping up a storm! I managed to get a fairly good look at it as it flew back and forth, hiding in the bushes. Jared was the true hero of the day though, keeping a close eye on the bird and helping others find it.
It's always great to see a bird after so much effort. I'm glad we didn't give up, and I was able to add a new bird to my life list!
Here's a good photo of a Virginia's Warbler (not our photo):
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