On Tuesday, 28 September 2004, about 4:30 p.m. I was showing a co-worker, Angie Smith, a few migrants in the small wooded area behind BirdWatcher Supply Co. in Duluth (Gwinnett Co.) where I work. I had seen an immature male Common Yellowthroat and a female Hooded Warbler. Angie pointed to a woodpile and asked if that bird was the Hooded Warbler. I quickly got a glimpse of a yellowish warbler with a grayish head and an eye-ring before it hopped out of sight into the bushes nearby. Definitely not a Hooded. I tried for an hour to relocate the bird and then decided it was probably a Nashville or a funky Common Yellowthroat and gave up.

Wednesday, 29 September, as I arrived at work about 12:30 p.m., I heard a strong warbler chip note behind the store. I went to investigate. There were several birds there, including Hooded Warbler, an immature Pine Warbler, some American Redstarts and a House Wren. After a few minutes, I got a glimpse of a warbler that I thought could possibly be a Mourning Warbler, but the bird didn't cooperate and disappeared. After about an hour or so, the bird re-appeared and I finally got a decent look....very yellow sides and undertail coverts, olive back, pale gray hood with a whitish throat, big white eye-ring, that I thought could be broken, but didn't see well enough to be sure. The bird was very skulky and returned to the brush pile.

I called Earl Horn who arrived quickly and after waiting for about 30 or 40 minutes, the bird finally appeared and allowed us good looks. We were able to view the bird's head and noticed that the eye-ring was actually more like the eye-arcs of a MacGillivray's, very white and thick, not connecting from upper to lower arc. Earl was able to get several pictures with his digital camera. The bird chipped often as it was foraging. The chip note sounded similar to that of a waterthrush, but drier.

Several other birders arrived and were able to view the bird later in the day. After viewing the bird and noting the whitish throat, eye-arcs and long tail with shorter coverts, the concensus was that the bird is a MacGillivray's Warbler (Oporornis tolmiei), probably an adult female.

If accepted, this record would only be the second confirmed MacGillivray's Warbler in Georgia, the first caught and banded at Jekyll Island, 2 October 1987.

BirdWatcher Supply Co. is located at 2180 Pleasant Hill Rd. in Duluth. It is in the Kroger/Gwinnett Station shopping center near the intersection of Satellite Blvd. The store doesn't open until 10 a.m., but you may drive or walk around back to view the bird. There are several large delivery trucks that use the back road, so please be careful where you park. One note, the big brush pile is temporary and could be moved at any time by contractors working on the drainage system behind the store. They have told us that they will be in there with heavy machinery in the near future. The phone number is 770-497-9709.

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