A Surprise from the Archives: Hermit Warbler and Juvenile at Cape Perpetua, Oregon

Sometimes the birdwatching surprises come when one is going through the archives, and makes a discovery from a couple of years back in time. That happened today as I was going though the pictures of a Pacific Northwest trip in the summer of 2015 and came across a set of pictures I had forgotten I had taken. I never followed up at the time to try and identify this bird, but it didn't take long to find that it was a Hermit Warbler (Setophaga occidentalis), This beautiful female was hopping through the trees at Cape Perpetua on the Central Oregon Coast, accompanied by a fledged chick.

The warblers have been a real challenge for me. They are mostly migrants in our area, so I've only had a few opportunities to see them (with the prominent exception of the Yellow-rumped Warbler which is common in our area). There are more than forty species (I've recorded just six of them), and some of them display a lot of variation within a single species. I look forward to the fall season!