Good morning!

After posting pictures on Facebook, it has been confirmed that the Audubon’s Yellow-rumped Warbler that I located with my friend Dan yesterday in Stark County is bonafide!  I am told that only 10 have been photographed in Ohio.  I will post directions directly below here so those who want to locate it can cut to the chase and I will post my narrative of finding the bird below that. 

First of all, i want to thank Kent Miller and Ben Morrison for helping me work through the ID while communicating via text yesterday afternoon!  Once again, my mentors were there for me when I needed them.

Location:  Ohio & Erie Towpath Trail:  Crystal Springs Trailhead.  North of Massillon…south of Canal Fulton.  From State Rt. 21 in Massillon, take the Lake Avenue exit East and make an immediate left (north) on Erie Street.  Follow Erie St. north until you hit a 4-way stop sign.  Continue north for 3/4 of a mile and the trailhead is on your left.  In the parking lot, note the yellow posts for the snow plows.  At the second post on the right side of the lot, there is a tree with a good craw of ivy berries that is still holding a few.  This is where the bird returned for me 3x yesterday.  I hope to get back there today.

http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/joncefus/media/AudubonsYRWA4TowpathTrailCrystalSpringsTrailhead12-27-14_zpse64120af.jpg.html <http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/joncefus/media/AudubonsYRWA4TowpathTrailCrystalSpringsTrailhead12-27-14_zpse64120af.jpg.html>


Narrative:  With the warm temperatures yesterday, my friend Dan and I decided to do some biking along the Towpath Trail north of Massillon.  I did NOT bring my camera along as it is large and unwieldy, so it is not something one wants to have around their neck while riding.  I did, however, of course have my binoculars.  The ride was lovely.  The sun felt incredible and we heard a nice variety of expected winter birds of Ohio.

When we got back to the parking lot at Crystal Springs, I noticed a bird working the ivy berries right in front of the car.  I put the bins on it and was happy to see a Yellow-rumped Warbler, not that unusual for our area in winter, but a nice bird to find nonetheless.  I immediately noticed it was odd, though.  The throat was yellow.  I racked my brain as to whether YRWA have yellow throats.  I searched my Sibley app on my phone and quickly realized that this was unusual.

I immediately contacted Kent and Ben to start digging.  I am still very inexperienced, so I did not want to falsely inflate what I was seeing.  Just as I was speaking with them, the bird flew off.  Luckily, it returned in about 10 minutes to the same spot.  The message from Kent was “get a photograph!”.  Well, my camera was miles and miles away at my friend’s house!  We jumped in his car and raced back to his house, where I jumped into my car immediately and headed back to the trailhead.  I may or may not have broken a few speed limits on the way, but I will say I was not driving unsafely. 

When I got back to the trailhead, I had about 15-20 minutes of daylight left and the skies had grown thick with clouds.  NOT great photo taking weather.  It took me about 5 minutes to relocate the bird again and I was able to successfully get the bird framed in the background with a tree so I could really bump up the ISO and get the ID-worthy shots.  I shared the shots on Facebook (Bobolink Page and Birding Ohio) and got confirmation from many great birders that this was in fact, an Audubon’s YRWA in Stark County!

This is definitely the most exciting thing to happen to me while birding so far!

Once again, my deepest thanks to Ben and Kent who helped me work it out.  Also big thanks to Jen Brumfield, Vic Fazio, and Kenn Kaufman for their expert help at sorting this bird out.  I very much appreciate all of your help and time.

Happy New Year birders!


Jon Cefus


“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.” 
-Douglas Adams


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