200 Yellowrumped Warblers channeling their inner pipits

At the lake levee at UNO just now (930 AM), adjacent the Alumni Center, was a pure flock of 200 Yellow-rumped Warblers creeping about on the lawn.  They were far enough from trees that I first thought they were American Pipits (an open country bird we get here in the winter, that also moves about in flocks  in wide grassy expanses).

I have seen an unusual amount of ground foraging by Yellowrumps in the last several weeks, but this is a new ground-foraging maximum for me for the species.  And unusually open habitat for them.

I can only speculate that the recent cold weather has shifted the distribution of food down to ground level somehow.  Perhaps they are on the south-facing levee slope because it tilts toward the sun, and warmer temperatures there make the bugs more active- ?

The birds themselves did not seem put out by the cold- several of them were bathing in a rain puddle.

Peter

For a copy of Birding Made Easy-New Orleans, email me at birding.made.easy.new.orleans@gmail.com, or look for it at area book stores.  It is now available at
Uptown:  Garden District Book Shop, Maple Street Book Shop, Octavia Books
French Quarter and Marigny:  Peach Records, Fauborg Marigny Art Books Music, Librairie Book Shop, Beckham's Bookshop, Arcadian Books and Prints, the Crabnet
Mid City:  City Park Botanical Garden, Community Book Center

Metairie:  Double M Feed on W. Esplanade

Harahan:  Double M Feed on Jefferson Hwy
North Shore:  Mandeville Chiropractic