Insight: First Palm

Okay, I know, it's a terrible photo. This was a record shot, for documentation, and it was so freaking cold that my hands were shaking!  Photo by Kenn Kaufman.

April 10:  Among the earliest warblers to come through n.w. Ohio in spring is the Palm Warbler.  Their peak numbers occur in late April and the first few days of May, but we can hope to see our first one before mid-April if we get out enough.

Today I found my first Palm Warbler of the season, but it was notable in another way: it was of the eastern subspecies, the "Yellow" Palm Warbler (Setophaga palmarum hypochrysea).  These brightly colored birds nest mainly in eastern Quebec, the Maritime Provinces, and Maine, and they migrate north mostly along the Atlantic Coast, so they are rare in Ohio.  The vast majority of the birds that pass through here are "Western" Palm Warblers (Setophaga palmarum palmarum), which nest all the way from western Quebec to the edge of the Canadian Rockies.

"Yellow" Palms have been documented to migrate north earlier in spring than "Western" Palms, so perhaps it is not surprising that the first one to show up here would be a stray from this population.