Mew Gulls commonly use foot-paddling to feed on (in) some of the softer
intertidal substrates in Puget Sound.

--Jerry Tangren
<tangren at wsu.edu>

>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>