Nancy and Walter,

Thank you for your note.  I posted the images quickly without careful study.
When I took a last glance at them a I noticed a patterning that made me
wonder if I had both sexes.  But I was in a hurry and had other things to do
so I didn't check like I should have.  Late last night when I thought about
the experience I concluded that maybe I was witnessing nest building because
I did not capture any images with caterpillars in the bill but did get many
images with the web "tangled" in their bills.  They would fly off in one
particular direction after each trip to the web. I did not hear any sounds
from them at all.

I hope you don't mind if I share your observation with the listserves.

Thank you.  

Jim Block 

-----Original Message-----
From: Nancy Martin [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 9:58 PM
To: Jim Block
Subject: Lebanon gnatcatchers

Hi Jim,

We saw your post on the gnatcatcher in Lebanon and checked out the 
photos. We thought you might be interested to know that you caught a 
pair of gnatcatchers with your camera - the two of the male show a bluer 
crown and the distinct black line extending from the bill over the eyes; 
the female is grayer, without the distinct brow line. From your photos, 
we would say they were gathering nesting material, rather than preying 
on tent caterpillars. Like hummingbirds, gnatcatchers use spider web and 
insect silk to hold their nests together. If you can follow their flight 
after they have a mouthful of fluff, you would likely discover a nest 
under construction. They tend to be noisy as they go about nest-building 
and don't seem to care if you watch, as long as you're not too close. 
Congratulations on getting some very nice shots - gnatcatchers are so 
active they're hard to photograph.

Walter has a special interest in gnatcatchers as they were the subject 
of his Master's thesis. He recalls seeing a pair nest-building in West 
Lebanon in about 1973, at that time the first nesting confirmation in 
the Connecticut River valley north of Brattleboro.

Thanks for sharing your observations and photos,

Nancy Martin & Walter Ellison
Chestertown, MD

Observing Nature is like unwrapping a big pile of presents every time 
you take a walk.

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