The Black-throated Gray Warbler migrates from central Mexico to our western states to breed. This tiny female had been blown far off her migratory pathway during the strong storms of Spring 2018. She showed up alone at Magee Marsh in northwestern Ohio, more than a twelve hundred miles east of her breeding grounds.

She appeared healthy and was successfully foraging for insects among the many migrating eastern warblers. We birders and photographers watched her forage in a relatively small area of brush, delighted to see such a rare species in the eastern U.S.

As I learned more about where she would normally be I began to ask questions of those looking on with me who seemed more knowledgable about her welfare since she was so far from other Black-throated Gray Warblers. Does she know where she is? Will she be able to find sufficient food in an unfamiliar and much different plant community? Will she try to find her way back west during the migration season? Or will she stay put and attempt to migrate south in the fall? Will she know how to get to her wintering grounds from here?
None of us really knew.