[obol] Chickadee & Gold-crowned Kinglet Behaviors

[sandyleapt at comcast.net]

Hi all.

I have been watching the garden birds this morning and much to my surprise one of the Chickadees started pulling sunflower seeds from flower clusters on the Viburnum blooming in my garden.  I immediately ran for the Birds of Oregon book to see if Chickadees cache food.  It looks like the behavior has been noted in other states, it would seem they do the same thing here in Oregon.

Is it unusual for Golden-crowned Kinglets to hawk insects?  I went for a walk today along the Columbia Slough Canoe Launch Trail.  In the young fir trees west of the parking lot I was surrounded by a small group of Golden-crowned Kinglets down fairly low in the trees.   Some of the kinglets were hawking insects.  I snapped a few photos and through just dumb luck got one of the birds and the bugs in the picture. 

Birds seen on the trail west of the parking lot.  watched for about and hour today:

Golden-crowned Kinglet
Brown Creeper
Anna's Hummingbird (adult male singing, did not see)
Downy Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker (heard not seen)
Common merganser
Hooded merganser
American Wigeon
Gadwall
Ring-necked Duck
Mallard
Bufflehead
Double-crested Cormorant
Western Scrub Jay
American Crow
Spotted Towhee
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Starling (1)
American Robin (1)
Unidentified Gulls
Unidentified Sparrows
Canada Geese




Sandy Leaptrott
NE Portland

PS:  I am blown away by the incredible beauty of Hooded Mergansers and how hard it is to get a picture of a Buflehead, they sink or fly when they sense a camera pointed at them.