Hi everyone,



Species number 90 for the yard life-list showed up today, on the heels of several other warbler posts on Tweeters about warblers on the move (and Guy's report on the highly-territorial fellow).? I have had Orange-crowneds in the neighborhood pretty much every year about this time, but this was the first one actually in the yard.?



It apparently was drawn in by the recirculating streamlet in our yard, and then exhibited some behavior I hadn't seen before.? It was feeding in the tiny flowers on an Evergreen Huckleberry plant next to the stream.? I'm presuming there were small insects of some sort in the flowers, rather than this particular warbler deciding to imitate a hummingbird's food preference.? But maybe nectar is?to?some warblers as candy is to most kids (and?at least some adults)...!? I did get a short video of the feeding behavior.? Interestingly, the warbler flew off when a Black-capped Chickadee flew in and began feeding on the flowers as well.? Since chickadees become highly insectivorous before/during the breeding season, that's another data point suggesting small bugs in the flowers.



John Tubbs

Snoqualmie, WA

johntubbs at comcast.net ?