Pine Warbler, Kennebunk, Maine, USA There is a poem that goes with this. See below. First though it turns out I should not have been surprised that the first warbler of spring here in southern Maine was a Pine Warbler. According to the Audubon Guide to the Birds of North America online, the Pine Warner is singing on territory and nesting by April in Maine. This particular pine warbler was the first I have seen in our yard…but, again, according to Audubon, they are one of the few warblers that do come to feeders. You can see the seed I had scattered under the feeders by my blind around the bird’s feet. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Polarr and Apple Photos.

And the poem:

4/20
Sitting in the blind on a chilly, cloudy
April afternoon, a bird flys in. At first
glance I am thinking female Goldfinch
since we have a lot of them around,
and it has that dull yellow color and
wing-bars…but then it hops down and
comes toward me through the leaf-
litter…not very Goldfinch like. I get
the camera on it and see the pale
streaking on the breast and that carpet
tack black bill. A warbler then, but
which one? Clearly not one of the
more obvious ones, or one I have
seen recently or often at all the past
or I would know it. The indexer in me
does that pinball machine thing where
it rolls down like the ball, bouncing off
the dull yellow Orange-crowned, and
the grayer Tennessee…the brighter
Palm and Prairie, looking for a home.
It comes to rest, just barely balanced
on Pine. But is it? It takes a visit to
iBird on my phone to convince me,
but, yes it is definitely a Pine. Isn’t it
wonderful how the birder’s mind works?
But I have to say, at first glance it still
looks enough like a female Goldfinch
so that I am not embarrassed at all.