Subject: Re: Shoveler behavior
Date: Dec 11 11:49:16 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


I observed the "circling shoveler" behavior years ago and immediately
thought I had something to write up for a journal article, as I could find
nothing about it in the literature--until I looked in Bent's life
histories, and there it was, nicely described. "Back to Bent" is a saying
all birders should memorize.

I have photos of a flock of ca. 50 shovelers doing this at Green Lake.
There were several such groups present one day, and they remained in their
tight vortices for the 10 minutes or so I watched them. They were pressed
tightly together, circling and slurping and circling and slurping. It's
very common to see pairs do this. It must function like the spinning of
phalaropes, during which I have actually seen items moving upward in the
water column.

Ain't nature grand??!!

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416