Location West Penn Trail, mile marker 9, Indiana county, PA
It's not supposed to be this easy. This time, I was fortunate.
Walking on the Ghost Town Trail the day before, I ran into a couple with binoculars and a camera with a huge lens. I stopped to talk birds, and they asked if I was interested in a Swainson's Warbler. I said that indeed I was. I thought I had heard one the previous year at Allegheny Portage NHS, but I wasn't sure about it. They gave me directions on how to find it, so I resolved to look the next day.
I woke up early the next morning and drove to the Livermore trail head of the West Penn Trail. It was dark and drizzly, with short periods of showers. As instructed, I went down the hill and turned left onto the trail. I soon came to mile marker 9.5. I had been told that mile 9 was about 3/4 mile from the starting point, so everything was working out so far. The trail was heavily shaded, so the rain/drizzle wasn't an issue.
After crossing over the Conemaugh river on a bridge, I arrived at mile marker 9, where a Swainson's Warbler had been heard just the previous day (the couple belonged to the local birding club, so they were in the know). Not two seconds after arriving at the signpost with 9 on it, I heard the song. He repeated it several times.
The song was coming from some deep woods on private property, so there was no real chance of actually seeing it.
