Sorry for the delay in responding...

We found the bird by heading north into Dead Creek from the
Mississquoi river, approximately a mile up the creek, on the left. (Dead
Creek is near the eastern edge of Mississquoi National Wildlife Refuge)
It was near the water in an area of large trees with little undergrowth.

It looked exactly like the representation in my Peterson guide. Small,
light-brown backed, no wing bars or other markings on top, whitish
underneath, no streaks or other markings. We did note the eyebrow
stripe, but here I wish I'd had working binoculars.  It was walking  
slowly
along around the tree, picking at things on the ground.  It seemed not
to notice us as we drifted silently closer in the canoe.

David Gusakov







On May 22, 2008, at 1:11 PM, Scott W. Morrical wrote:

> Quoting David Gusakov <[log in to unmask]>:
>
>> Canoeing with my son in Mississquoi Wildlife Refuge a few days ago,
>> we both thought the little bird walking along the ground near the  
>> water
>> was a swainson's warbler.  Though we had no binocs (they had gotten
>> wet earlier in our trip), we drifted quite close and had an  
>> extended look.
>>
>> Does anyone know of sightings of this bird this far north?
>
> Extremely rare north of its northern-most breeding sites in  
> Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia.  There are individual records of  
> vagrants from southeastern New York, coastal Nova Scotia, and one  
> recent record from the central valley of California.  Probably  
> others I didn't have time to look up.  So vagrancy definitely  
> occurs, and it's skulking nature means it is probably overlooked.   
> Even so, it's presence in Vermont would be astonishing.  Can you  
> provide a detailed description?  Also an approximate location in  
> case others want to paddle out and look for it?  Thanks for posting  
> it,
>
> Scott Morrical
> <[log in to unmask]>
> South Burlington
>
>
>>
>> David Gusakov