Warblers feeding on joe-pye

A male Cape May Warbler (Setophaga tigrina) shifts position in a Red Elm (Ulmus rubra). I encountered a mixed foraging flock of warblers this morning not far from where I live, in Franklin County, Ohio. Co-dominant in the flock were Cape May and Tennessee warblers. The site was a deciduous woodland bordering bisected by a broad powerline cut. Red and White oaks, elms, cherry and other caterpillar-rich trees were plentiful and unsurprisingly that's where the birds were focused.

A female Cape May Warbler works the densely flowered inflorescence of Sweet-scented Joe-pye (Eutrochium purpureum). The powerline cut was full of this statuesque plant. Even though the joe-pye was mostly done flowering, it was full of insects. Several Cape May and Tennessee warblers worked the senescing flowers, yanking what mostly appeared to be orthopterans (crickets, katydids, etc.) and spiders out.

A Tennessee Warbler (Leiothlypis peregrina) peers intently into joe-pye flowers. It was interesting to watch them rustle about the flowers, sometimes spending a minute or more in the same spot, seizing early instar crickets and spiders.

I'm going to pay more attention to the joe-pyes in fall migration.