Mondays with Mike #5 – Tennessee Warblers Galore, 10/6/25

Tennessee Warbler,

John James Audubon

It was another excellent morning at Jackson Park!  We kicked off the 5th Mondays with Mike walk at 7:30 with large waves of warblers that continued until 9:00.  Unfortunately, at least 100 warblers passed by without IDs near sunrise in the dim lighting conditions.  Later we encountered numerous large wandering mixed flocks everywhere we went throughout the park.  Tennessee was by far the most common among our 16 warbler species.  We tallied 42 Tennessee’s (5 in one binocular field) though many of the early birds we couldn’t ID were likely this species as well. 

We also had several non-warbler highlights.  First was a Nighthawk which not only is late in the season, but was also unusual as a mid-morning flyover.  And speaking of flyovers, we spotted 2 raptors passing by which turned out to be an immature Bald Eagle and a Merlin – an odd pair to be migrating together.  And then our last bird of the trip was a skulking Marsh Wren along the Nature Trail that serenaded us but wouldn’t come into view. 

We finished with 63 species total.  The eBird checklist can be found here:  ebird.org/checklist/S277674054

Through 5 walks in the Mondays with Mike series we’ve observed 93 species total, including 25 warbler species.