Mike in the Wild

My fascination with this year's spring warbler migration is turning into a contest: just how many species can I spot?  The number reached five this past weekend after I encountered a Wilson's and a black-throated gray, both in Phoenix.  They added to the painted redstart, Lucy's warbler, and common yellowthroat I had identified over the two previous weeks.   Of course factoring in the warblers that spend the winter in the Phoenix area, like the yellow-rumped and the orange-crowned, the number is even higher.  As a result, the local number of the small, colorful songbirds rises to seven.  My preoccupation with the warblers really started in February, on Cozumel in Mexico, where I spotted two visiting species, the American redstart and the pine warbler.  Unfortunately these birds mostly don't migrate to the far western United States, preferring the east for their summer breeding seasons.  Nonetheless, adding them, this year's warbler-spotting number...