Few of Pennsylvania's breeding birds have the ability to please a crowd the way a Prothonotary Warbler can.  They draw attention wherever they are in the state, and always elicit "ooohs" and "aaahs" from their audience.

 

But have one show up in Allegheny County and, well, the birders will simply flock to the scene.  By far the rarest of the regular Pennsylvania warblers in Allegheny County, there are only a handful of records in the last twenty-five years.  Simply put, everybody who birds in Allegheny County wants one of these, and on April 26, 2005, many got their wish.

 

Discovered five days previously on April 21, this individual was refound on the 26th by Dave Wilton and Mark Vass along the Allegheny River just downstream from the 40th Street Bridge (Lawrenceville side).  There it remained for hours on end in a single flowering elm tree, gulping down worms and occasionally singing.  The bird seems perfectly content - will it remain to be counted among the "possible" (or, dare we dream, "confirmed") breeding birds in Allegheny this year?  It's been here for five straight days so far, only time will tell...