This week we have a female common yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas) – I believe, anyway. It was the closest match that I could find, but since there were no males in evidence, I won’t say that I’m 100% certain (the males being more distinctly colored.) I snagged this almost offhandedly while touring through Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge in central New York three years ago – which is where I was not quite a week ago, though the day this was taken had considerably better conditions than the most recent visit, which was overcast and rainy. So, I had the chance to remove this from the ‘Just Once’ list only days ago, but saw nothing of the sort in the brief visit. Now, they’re also supposed to be found around here in central North Carolina, though I have yet to positively identify one, but they’re marsh birds and so more likely to be found nearer the coast.
[As a stupid bit of trivia, I had only days before switched the incoming text alert sound on my smutphone over to the call of a marsh wren, obtained from the same video clips found here, and this was firing off while we were driving through the refuge – the sounds of home, as it were, though they elicited no response from anywhere therein. But it did serve to confuse my brother a couple of times…]