Upper peninsula of Michigan.
Getting a singing shot of this species was one of my goals for the Michigan trip with David. This was a new song for me to learn and it was a bit trickier for me to learn than some of the other warblers we were targeting. It's song can bear some resemblance to that of the CONW, and at one point when we first heard this bird singing we thought we had a CONW, but it proved to be this bird. In retrospect the song of the CONW is distinctly different. Too bad wishful thinking can not turn a song into a different bird! The birds share similar wet boggy habitat in the UP of Michigan, but the NOWA is FAR more common there.
David thru out our trip would often point out a conifer specimen and give it's name. I had forgotten the name of this one and had to message him for it. You might think David would have 'Photog'. ' GAPHOTOG', 'WARBLER', or other such name on a specialty license plate, but he has 'CONIFER' on his. So David knows conifers (borrowing a phrase from the old 'Bo knows' commercials!).
Anyhow here is an excerpt from Wikipedia on the conifer above. "Thuja occidentalis grows naturally in wet forests, being particularly abundant in coniferous swamps where other larger and faster-growing trees cannot compete successfully. It also occurs on other sites with reduced tree competition, such as cliffs. Although not currently listed as endangered, wild Thuja occidentalis populations are threatened in many areas by high deer numbers; deer find the soft evergreen foliage a very attractive winter food, and strip it rapidly."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuja_occidentalis
Tags: northern waterthrush michigan upper peninsula american white cedar thuja occidentalis
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Carter's Lake Songbird trail. 9/19/2012.
Some of these birds have a buff coloration to their underside and to the stripe above the eye and some do not. This bird has no buff coloration. It will be all one way or the other with this species. In contrast the Louisiana Waterthrush (LOWA) will have white like the above bird but always will have buff or pinkish color on the flanks. LOWA also will generally have much less markings in the throat area opposed to the Northern Waterthrush but in some worn plumages of Louisiana this criteria alone can be misleading. The feet/legs are brown in the Northern Waterthrush and bubble gum pink in the Louisiana. The stripe above the eye tapers at the posterior end in the above species and widens in the Louisiana.
The Louisiana is also a slightly bigger bird and the Northern is more compact.
Below in comments is the bird above calling with beak open. Below that is a buff variety of Northern Waterthrush. Finally the last bird in comments is a Louisiana Waterthrush from spring of this year.
Tags: northern waterthrush carter's lake songbird trail fall migration 2012 compare and contrast
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Riding Mountain National Park. Manitoba Canada. 6/9/2017.
This image was a bit too busy with branches so I held it back, hoping I might get a cleaner shot during fall migration. Such was not to be the case. For my flickr stream this is eastern warbler species #31 for 2017. We didn't spend a lot of time with this species in Manitoba, but we didn't come across more than a couple of them. As a point of reference we came across three times as many Connect1cut warblers, and the Connect1cuts were quite uncommon compared to many other warbler species we encountered.
Tags: manitoba northern waterthrush Riding Mountain National Park 6/9/2017
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This species was high on the want list for me this trip to the upper peninsula. It can be found in the lower peninsula but not at the sites I visit there. I encountered a bunch of these singing away. The song is so much different than the similar appearing L0uisiana Waterthrush as is the breeding habitat. It was a lot of fun to spend some time with this species.
Tags: Michigan Northern Waterthrush Waterthrush Warbler Whisperer Spring songster
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