At Courthouse Park in Waseca County today, I saw what at first seemed like a strange warbler. I soon realized that it was a Golden-crowned Kinglet without any yellow. I watched it for several minutes at close range as it foraged in a spruce. It had the typical bold black markings on the head and the usual wing pattern, but the top of the head and the wing feathers that should have shown yellow were a dull white. I know that some birds can be missing a pigment, so I guess that's the case with this one. Any other thoughts?
Warblers in the park today were: Yellow-rumped, Black-and-White, Nashville, and Pine. The Pine Warbler is a long-overdue addition to my Waseca County list (not many pines in that county, and this one was in an oak). As my wife and I sat quietly enjoying the new spring greenery and the LeSueur River, an Osprey that we hadn't noticed dropped from a nearby tree and cannonballed into the river. It came up empty, but returned to its perch for a few minutes and had better luck on the next plunge. The spring ephemeral wildflowers are near their peak. Julian Sellers St. Paul -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://moumn.org/pipermail/mou-net_moumn.org/attachments/20070501/0910f930/attachment.html
