Last weekend, my wife returned from a horseback ride in our neighborhood and
told me, somewhat excitedly, about seeing a bunch of Golden-crowned Kinglets
down on the ground, virtually unwilling to move out of the way despite the
horses passing very near.



I thought it odd, trying to remember a time when I have seen Golden-crowned
Kinglets foraging on the ground. I couldn't remember seeing anything like
it.



Kelly McAllister

Olympia



_____

From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
[mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of
johntubbs at comcast.net
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 2:14 PM
To: Michael Donahue
Cc: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Golden-crowned Kinglets



Hi Michael and everyone,



I've also been following this thread with interest, and have seen the same
behavior others are reporting - and I don't recall having seen it before
with this species. On the Skagit CBC, I was birding the edge of a cemetery
and saw a flock of about six or seven birds feeding in the grass about
fifteen feet from the woods surrounding the cemetery. They were
Golden-crowned Kinglets (GCKI) instead of sparrows as I expected. I spent
about half an hour birding that area and multiple kinglets continued this
behavior the entire time. And as others have reported, they appeared
virtually oblivious to my presence. My typical experience with GCKI's is
hearing their very high-pitched vocalizations that indicate a large flock
all around the area, but then spending lots of time craning my head upward
(usually into conifers) trying (often in vain) to see even a couple of them
flitting about for a quick look. An artist friend of mine refers to them as
'flying hiccups' - here and gone and virtually impossible to try to sketch
from life as a result of their frenetic activity and inconvenient (for the
observer) foraging habits.



I've also seen them feeding on the ground this winter while walking my dog
on paths around the neighborhood - something I don't recall from previous
years. There are no overt indications of a food shortage, judging from the
fact that there are predictably several large flocks (which include
chickadees and the occasional creeper or nuthatch as well) in the same areas
in small woodlots along my normal walking route. If food was short in those
areas, one would assume the flock would exhaust the supply and wander
completely away from the area, but so far they seem committed to the same
locations. Maybe it's the opposite situation - there might be some kind of
unusually high availability of an insect food source on the ground this year
that they're exploiting...? (Or maybe this is normal, and I need to spend
more time studying kinglets...!)



On the other hand, this is the first year we've had (twice, now) GCKI's
physically in our back yard. There are only seven Firs total between our
yard and our neighbors, quite a distance from the bulk of the surrounding
coniferous forest and so we've always assumed they haven't visited our trees
because much good feeding habitat is readily available elsewhere. This
could be pure happenstance, or perhaps they are feeding in isolated clumps
of conifers because of a scarcity of regular food items.



Interesting to note, whatever the explanation.





John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net




----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Donahue" <bfalbatross at gmail.com>
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 1:30:25 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Golden-crowned Kinglets

This thread about Golden-crowned Kinglets feeding down low is really
interesting. Last Saturday on Samish Island I noticed a group of
kinglets feeding in weeds along the road and I don't recall seen them
down so low before either. Are all these reports typical behavior that
we just happen to be noticing and reporting, or is there something
going on? Is their natural food source (which I would assume to be
tiny insects) more scarce? Maybe that November cold snap impacted
their source?

Mike Donahue
Beacon Hill, Seattle
_______________________________________________
Tweeters mailing list
Tweeters at u.washington.edu
http://mailman2.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters