H'lo Tweets,

Here's an excerpt from the Wildlife Ecology Digest #17. Any comments?
(My apologies to those Tweets who subscribe to WED and who have read this
excerpt already.)


Topic #9
From: lee foote <footel at osprey.nwrc.gov>
Subject: Foot paddling by shorebirds - Observations

Bob Thomas wrote: "I recently noted an unusual feeding behavior in
Piping Plovers. . . They would reach out with a foot and agitate the
wet sand, then quickly stick their beaks in to search for food.
Have any of you noticed this behavior using the foot? In any other
shore birds?"

Hi Bob: Interesting observation. Let's dub it the Thomas "hokey-pokey
step". In a similar vein, I have seen thousands of Wilson's
phalaropes
doing something like this during migration in the Great Salt Lake,
Utah, marshes. Their normal feeding habit is to turn tight circles
and surface peck, however, in the shallow brine-covered salt flats
they were "treading" the bottom. When I tried to duplicate the
disturbance with a small stick, I flushed hundreds of bottom-dwelling
Corixids and Ephidrids. Dabbling ducks in quick-settling substrates,
(e.g. sandy river sloughs or flocculant organic mucks) sometimes seem
to pump their feet then resume dabbling though I am not sure of the
reason. And finally, how about the hypothesis that the snowy egrets'
bright yellow feet serve as attractors of small fish like the color
yellow attracts game fish to a lure?

Lee Foote, PhD
National Biological Service
National Wetlands Research Center
700 Cajundome Blvd.
Lafayette, LA 70506
E-mail address: FooteL at nwrc.gov
Work Ph. (318) 266-8667

_____________________________________________________
Lisa M. Smith, Seattle WA <subplot at u.washington.edu>