I had such an interesting visit to Vadnais Lake yesterday that I decided to take another look this morning. 10 degrees F; much of the lake froze overnight. The ducks seemed fewer in number and were generally much further out into the lake from the road between the lakes. The very cooperative solitaire was there again.
Much to my surprise, as I was watching the solitaire in the cedars, I saw a bird flitting around in the branches. I assumed that it was a chickadee, but then it came out into full view and it was a YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER!! It has a prominent yellow rump, yellow patches up front, subtle streaking: it was a yellow-rumped warbler. These cedars are very popular with the yellow-rumps earlier in the year when the warblers are migrating en masse, but I was very surprised to find one on December 2nd when it was 10 degrees out. Do they eat berries? Was this bird finding insects when it is this cold? It was sunny. ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
