Hello, tweets.

I forgot to mention a few things of interest from a quick visit to
Semiahmoo Spit last Saturday, January 26. It would have been a
lengthier visit, but the sky got darker and darker as we were there,
spoiling attempts at digiscoping and eventually starting to snow -
beautiful but not so conducive to birding. The birds were
spectacular, rafts and rafts of numerous species in Drayton Harbor,
totaling at least several thousand birds. Whenever I go up there, my
despairing at the decline in our seabird populations is briefly
diminished.

Two observations I thought were of interest.

We noticed a Great Blue Heron perched on the west side of the
breakwater around the marina at the end of the spit splashing its
bill in the water (it had to bend far over, as it was standing above
the water on the floating structure). When we got the scope on it, I
could see it had a Dunlin in its bill. The bird was quite dead, its
wings flopping up and down as the heron dunked it. What was weird was
that it just kept dunking it. It would stand up with the Dunlin, move
it around a bit in its bill, then dunk it again, holding it in the
water for several seconds. It finally stood up, walked across the
breakwater, and dunked it on the other side! It did this for perhaps
5 minutes as we watched, then maneuvered it around and, with a couple
of gulps, swallowed it. One wing got stuck, but it eventually worked
that around. I speculate that the wings sticking out to the side may
have represented an impediment to swallowing that the heron was
trying to overcome by the dunking. Perhaps it simulated something
that was more dried up that had to be softened (but it was already
quite flexible), or perhaps it simulated the wide-open fins of some
spiny-rayed fish that had to be killed (but you wouldn't do that by
dunking it). I thought this was odd behavior, and I wished I had seen
whether the heron caught the bird alive or found it dead. I see no
reason to doubt that a heron would take a small shorebird that
wandered into range, as they catch voles with similar body weight all
the time.

I thought of Dunkin' Dunlins, a new line of snack shops for Great
Blue Herons.

A BLACK OYSTERCATCHER flew past us while we stood at the same
breakwater, the first I've seen on the spit or anywhere near it. I
have no idea what their status is there, but they can't be common. I
thought this might be of interest to whoever is keeping the Whatcom
County list of species for 2008.
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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