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Plasticity by Migrant Yellow-Rumped Warblers: Foraging Indoors During Unseasonable Cold Weather

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Plasticity by Migrant Yellow-Rumped Warblers: Foraging Indoors During Unseasonable Cold Weather GENERAL NOTES NORTHWESTERN NATURALIST 97:139–143 AUTUMN 2016 PLASTICITY BY MIGRANT YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS: FORAGING INDOORS DURING UNSEASONABLE COLD WEATHER KRISTIN JBONDO AND RMARK BRIGHAM ABSTRACT—From 11 to 15 October 2009, we ob- siding, and several unscreened vents near the served Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronata roof. Other observations were made in an older coranata) foraging inside an unheated barn on 4 d, and wooden barn 450 m from the milking parlor. The inside a heated modern milking parlor on 2 d at a dairy older barn had wooden slat floors and large farm in southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada. Warblers doors which were usually left open for ventila- fed on dormant flies that were huddled on the walls tion during the day, and was dimly lit inside inside of the barn and sallied for flies in mid-air and gleaned them from the window screens inside of the unless the barn doors were wide open. The milking parlor. These observations were preceded by 2 inside of the milking parlor was only lit during d of unseasonable cold weather on 9 and 10 October, milking, which usually occurred between 6:00 to when maximum temperatures were below 08C. Yel- 10:30 (CST) and 16:30 to 20:00. Although the low-rumped Warblers fed indoors until 15 October daily temperature of the barn and the milking after which the days became warmer, and we observed parlor is unknown, the barn was considerably them only outside. Yellow-rumped Warblers most colder than the milking parlor, and it was likely entered buildings to feed because unseasonable common in the barn for drinking water, kept in weather conditions increased their energetic demands 4.7-L pails for the calves, to freeze on a daily and provided incentive for them to exploit shelter and basis during winter months; whereas the parlor food in novel places. was kept near room temperature to make it Key words: behavior, Canada, foraging, indoors, comfortable for humans while milking (KJB, migratory birds, Myrtle Warbler, plasticity, Setophaga pers. obs.). From September 2008 to May 2010, coronata coronata, unseasonable weather, Yellow- KJB worked in the milking parlor up to 5 d a rumped Warbler week from 16:00 to 20:00. Between May 2009– 2010, KJB also did other duties in the barn or Yellow-rumped Warblers (formerly Myrtle milking parlor from 8:00 to 11:00 and 15:00 to Warbler; Setophaga coronata coronata) breed from 16:00. Vegetation within 30 m of the outside of northcentral Alberta east to Newfoundland, the barn and milking parlor was sparse, so north to Labrador and northern Quebec, and casual outdoor observations of birds were made south in the Appalachians to West Virginia when entering or exiting the buildings by (Hunt and Flaspohler 1998). Although migration visually scanning the trees and bushes within peaks in mid-October, they are one of the last 17 m of the barn and milking parlor. warblers to leave in the fall, remaining in the During late morning 11 October 2009, 2 northernmost part of the breeding range well Yellow-rumped Warblers were observed feeding into October (Hunt and Flaspohler 1998). Thus, on dormant flies huddled together on the walls many individuals are likely exposed to low inside the barn. At 08:30 on 12 October 2009, 3 temperatures on a regular basis. Here, we report warblers foraged in the same manner through- a novel case of several individual migrants in out the barn. Three other warblers seen inside southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada, coming the milking parlor hawked flies in mid-air and inside buildings and feeding on flies during also plucked them from window screens from unseasonable cold weather in October. 16:00 to 19:30. When not actively pursuing prey, Observations were made in October 2009 the birds perched on the beams of the ceiling and while KJB lived and worked on Darian Farms, near the vents. They continued to forage inside a 300-cow dairy farm near Zehner in rural the parlor until 19:30 when the lights were southeastern Saskatchewan (UTM: Zone 13, turned off for the night. It is unknown whether 538669 E, 5609952 N, NAD83). Some observa- they spent the night in the building after we left tions were made in the milking parlor, a modern and closed the doors. According to the sunrise- building with heated concrete floors, aluminum sunset calculator from National Research Coun- 139 //titan/production/n/nwnt/live_jobs/nwnt-97/nwnt-97-02/nwnt-97-02-09/layouts/nwnt-97-02-09.3d 28 June 2016 10:13 am Allen Press, Inc.Page 139 140 NORTHWESTERN NATURALIST 97(2) TABLE 1. Maximum temperature, minimum temperature, mean temperature, mean wind direction, snow on the ground, and wind chill obtained from Environment Canada showing the unseasonable weather conditions from 1 to 19 October 2009, during which warblers were observed feeding indoors. Date Max. Min. Mean Mean wind speed Mean wind Snow Wind (2009) temp. (8C) temp. (8C) temp. (8C) (km/h) direction (8)1 (cm) chill (8C) Oct. 1 6.8 3.8 5.3 39.5 344 0 0 Oct. 2 7.4 2.5 5 21.0 328 0 0 Oct. 3 8.4 2.5 5.5 9.6 106 0 0 Oct. 4 8.6 3.1 5.9 8.04 98 0 0 Oct. 5 5.5 1.3 3.4 8.8 102 0 0 Oct. 6 9.4 –1.3 4.1 17.2 221 0 –3.7 Oct. 7 3.9 1.5 2.7 40.3 321 0 0.0 Oct. 8 3.6 –4.5 –0.5 22.5 294 0 –7.4 Oct. 9 –3.4 –8.7 –6.1 33.5 312 1 –14.0 Oct. 10 –2.6 –6.3 –4.5 30.5 309 1 –12.0 Oct. 11 –2.1 –5.4 –3.8 10.6 302 2 –8.1 Oct. 12 –1.0 À6.6 –3.8 5.8 205 2 –6.9 Oct. 13 1.5 –5.7 –2.1 22.8 119 2 –8.6 Oct. 14 0.0 –1.4 –0.7 24.5 111 0 –6.8 Oct. 15 1.3 –2.0 –0.4 10.9 139 1 –5.7 Oct. 16 2.0 –1.5 0.3 12.4 269 0 –4.6 Oct. 17 19.2 –1.8 8.7 16.3 178 0 –6.4 Oct. 18 17.5 –0.1 8.7 24.5 236 0 0.0 Oct. 19 6.5 –3.2 1.7 7.5 215 0 –3.4 1 Mean wind direction is geographic (not magnetic) direction that the wind blows (0 ¼ calm wind; 90 ¼ 908 true or east wind; 360 ¼ 3608 true or north wind) cil Canada (http://www.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/eng/ ature during this time period were downloaded services/sunrise), sunrise and sunset occurred from Environment Canada from 1990 to 2011 at 7:17 and 18:12, respectively, on this date in and plotted using Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Regina, approximately 27 km away. Office 2007). All data except snowfall were On 13 October 2009, 3 Yellow-rumped War- collected at a weather station at the Regina blers were observed feeding on dormant flies in International Airport, 29.4 km away. Snowfall the barn from 09:00 to 11:00. On 15 October 2009, data were collected at Saskatchewan Polytechnic 1 warbler was observed feeding on active flies in in Regina, 27.6 km away. We also accessed data the milking parlor around 10:30. After 15 on wind direction (8) from Environment Canada, October, warblers were not observed inside because migrants often depart when cold fronts either the barn or the milking parlor. While no clear the area, producing tailwinds for south- warblers were observed inside either building ward-flying birds (Akesson˚ and Hedenstrom¨ during the same period in 2008, flies congregat- 2000). ed inside the barn beginning in August and Yellow-rumped Warblers were observed on 4 overwintered in clusters inside it in both 2008 d in the milking parlor following 2 d (9 and 10 and 2009. The warblers entered the wooden barn October 2009) of unseasonable cold weather through the large doors and through an opening when mean daily temperatures were À6.18C in the wall made for a feed dispenser. The and À4.58C, respectively, and daily maximum warblers most likely gained access to the milking temperatures reached only À3.48C and À2.68C, parlor through the vents. It was customary to respectively (Table 1). On 9 and 10 October 2009, have a radio playing at a loud volume during 1 cm of snowfall was reported, and the wind milking, but the birds did not appear to be chill for these 2 d was À148CandÀ128C, disturbed by the noise. respectively (Table 1). On 17 October 2009, when To determine whether the period from 1 to 15 mean daily temperature was 8.78C and maxi- October 2009 was unseasonably cold relative to mum temperature reached 19.28C, warblers other years, mean daily temperature, maximum were only observed in the tree outside the daily temperature, and minimum daily temper- milking parlor. No warblers were observed //titan/production/n/nwnt/live_jobs/nwnt-97/nwnt-97-02/nwnt-97-02-09/layouts/nwnt-97-02-09.3d 28 June 2016 10:13 am Allen Press, Inc.Page 140 AUTUMN 2016 GENERAL NOTES 141 when warblers entered the buildings during sub-zero maximum temperatures, because al- though flies in the milking parlor were active, flies in the unheated barn were dormant (KJB, pers. obs.). Lack of prey outdoors during cold temperatures could have had significant ener- getic implications for migrants.
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