Cerulean Warblers at Ottawa Lake Campground

After leaving the Emma Carlin Trail, I shot over to Ottawa Campgrounds to look for the Cerulean Warblers. I found at least 6 of them singing their hearts out, along the west side of the lake. In a few areas it worked out quite nicely, since your standing on top of the bluff and the trees their singing in are lower, they would be just above eye level for short periods. They are beautiful birds! I walked along the trail, near the waters edge and witnessed a territorial dispute. Two Palm Warblers were feeding in a tree and one of the Cerulean Warblers didn’t like that, so he chased them out. In the meantime, it must have been too close to another’s territory, because he came zipping in and the two fluttered with each other down to the ground, and rolled around for a few seconds. They both flew up to the same branch about 4′ off the ground, looked around and took off in their own directions Seeing that was incredible! I had never experienced that before. I also had 3 singing Yellow-throated Vireos, but did not get very good looks at them. They were always either behind a piece of branch or half in the sun, half in the shadows, which is terrible for photos. So I don’t even bother taking them in those situations. Pictures below are from the early/mid afternoon that day. Enjoy!