Kelly,

Diving birds have to swim underwater with the feet exactly opposed. They are moved rapidly but over a fairly short stroke. I can envision them turning slow somersaults underwater if the feet were paddled below them, and I think they get much more power by opposing the feet and moving them in unison. The only exception I know of is in guillemots, which may paddle with their feet for short-distance propulsion while mainly swimming with their wings underwater.

One of the thrilling things of birding to me is seeing diving birds underwater. I wish I could see it a lot more often. I've always thought there should be underwater viewing chambers where diving birds are common. Maybe at the Seattle Aquarium with feeding stations?

Dennis
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net


On Dec 29, 2010, at 12:01 PM, tweeters-request at mailman2.u.washington.edu wrote:

> Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 19:11:31 -0800
> From: "Kelly Cassidy" <lostriver at completebbs.com>
> Subject: RE: [Tweeters] Bufflehead underwater
> To: "'Lyn Topinka'" <pointers at pacifier.com>,
> <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Message-ID: <007201cba706$19405540$4bc0ffc0$ at com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>
> Thanks, Lyn. It was interesting that his feet were stuck out to the side
> inside of under or behind. Wonder why that is?
>
> Kelly Cassidy
> Pullman, WA
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu
> [mailto:tweeters-bounces at mailman2.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Lyn Topinka
> Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 2:55 PM
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Subject: [Tweeters] Bufflehead underwater
>
>
> hi group ... Gene and I went to Westmoreland Park (Portland) for a
> Christmas afternoon walk ... at one point we hid against the trees
> and pretended we were part of them ... the male Bufflehead came very
> close ... I tried to shoot the sequence of him diving and then
> re-surfacing ... got some !!! ... and yes, I did adjust the
> light/dark of the underwater images a bit to show him better ...
>
>
> diving ...
>
> http://columbiariverimages.com/Birds/Images10Dec/westmoreland_park_bufflehea
> d_male_diving_12-25-10_B.jpg
>
> underwater ...
>
> http://columbiariverimages.com/Birds/Images10Dec/westmoreland_park_bufflehea
> d_male_underwater_12-25-10.jpg
>
> right before he popped up ...
>
> http://columbiariverimages.com/Birds/Images10Dec/westmoreland_park_bufflehea
> d_male_underwater_12-25-10_B.jpg
>
>
> back on the surface ...
>
> http://columbiariverimages.com/Birds/Images10Dec/westmoreland_park_bufflehea
> d_male_surfacing_12-25-10.jpg
>
>
> enjoy,
> Lyn
>
>
>
>
>
> Lyn Topinka



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