Subject: Shorebirds on one leg!!!!!!!........From S.W.Wash.
Date: Nov 26 19:51:51 1998
From: Gerald Hamilton - gerald at e-z.net


.......................Sometime ago I broached the question: Why do
shorebirds frequently stand on one leg???? The few replies I received
indicated there was little knowledge on the answer to this question.
.......................When I visited my daughter and granddaughter in
Issaquah, Wash several weekends ago, we visited the Seattle Aquarium,
and, lo and behold, sext to the small aviary there, were several
information signs, one of which told me the answer to the above
intriging question. So.........here it is for all your inquisitive
minds: Since bird's legs have no hair or feathers on them, they are
subject to rapid loss of heat from those areas. So......to conserve loss
of additional body heat, they, when the seabreezes are windy and cold,
tuck one leg under them, and stand , then, on just one leg, a minimal
area exposed to heat loss. ----Very interesting!!!!!!!
...............Oh, by the way, the aquarium has a somewhat small but
interesting shorebird aviary: Dowitchers, Marbled Godwit, Black-bellied
Plovers, Black Turnstones, Ruddy Ducks, 4or5 species of seabirds(Murres,
Pigeon Guillemots, Tufted Puffins, Rhinoceros Auklets, Etc.), along with
a very nice ocean surf display inclusing several Black Oystercatchers
parrading around on the rocks......a nice place to introduce children to
some shore and seabirds.

.....Hope all had a wonderful thanksgiving!!!
Gerald Hamilton
Brush Prairie, Wash.
gerald at e-z.net