Must be something in the thistle seed. Today, a pair of American Goldfinches came to the feeder area and the female wandered over to one of the Black Cherry trees and started collecting silk from the tent caterpillar nests. Didn't appear to be eating or searching for caterpillars (there were plenty there). Seems really early for them to be nesting though. After gathering a beakful, she hopped over to another limb and wiped it off onto the branch. (Which was actually quite entertaining to watch as it kept sticking to her bill... then blew back and got stuck on the back of her head so she had to scratch it off with her foot... then it was stuck to her foot... so she used her bill to get it off her foot... but now it's back on her bill. Like watching a Three Stooges routine.) Anyway, after finally getting rid of the silk, she went back and did the whole thing over. Again she eventually dropped the silk and finally went over to the feeder. Weird. Dean Edwards Knoxville, TN =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation. You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should appear in the first paragraph. _____________________________________________________________ To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx _____________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. ______________________________________________________________ TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s) endorse the views or opinions expressed by the members of this discussion group. Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ------------------------------ Assistant Moderator Andy Jones Cleveland, OH ------------------------------- Assistant Moderator Dave Worley Rosedale, VA __________________________________________________________ Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ARCHIVES TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/ MAP RESOURCES Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com _____________________________________________________________