Anyone with flowering fruit trees should keep an eye them. Our plum is in full bloom right now and this afternoon it hosted Nashville, Tennessee and Cape May warblers, both genders. I wouldn't be surprised if they're eating both plant and animal material. Linda Whyte
On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 8:20 PM, Julian Sellers <juliansell...@msn.com> wrote: > Everyone is seeing warblers on or near the ground this year, even canopy > species such as Tennessee and Blackburnian. Here's my theory: with the > late leaf-out, birds are not finding the usual caterpillars (and perhaps > other bugs) in the tree-tops, so they're finding food in the low shrubbery, > where the leaves are further along, and on the ground. > > Julian > > -----Original Message----- From: John Zakelj > Sent: Friday, May 13, 2011 7:53 PM > To: MOU-NET@LISTS.UMN.EDU > Subject: [mou-net] Warblers and thrushes feeding on the streets in Ramsey Co > > I’ve been noticing unusual groups of birds feeding on our neighborhood > streets in the southeast part of St Paul. They congregate under > overhanging elm trees. The trees are dropping seeds, but I don’t think > the birds are eating the seeds. A group on Totem Road this morning > included 5 Swainson’s (maybe grey-cheeked?) thrushes and a number of > yellow-rumped warblers. Another group on Mystic St included a > mourning warbler (male in full spring plumage), a yellowthroat, 2 > Nashvilles, 4 Tennessees, a number of yellow-rumps and 2 chipping > sparrows. I watched each group with binoculars from my car and I could > not figure out what they were eating. They were not picking up the > seeds. They were so busy pecking at the pavement that they didn’t > move until the car was almost on them. Later, I examined the > pavement and the seeds but couldn’t find any bugs or larvae. About > half of the Mystic St group were still feeding in the same location in the > evening, including the yellowthroat. I was not able to refind the > mourning warbler. Anybody have any idea what they were eating? > > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > ---- > Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net > Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html > ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
