Rachel and fellow Tweets,
Photos of rare birds, interesting behaviors etc. can be posted on the Washington Birding facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Washington-Birding/137712199682582 Wilson Cady

---------- Original Message ----------
From: "Rachel Lawson" <RWLawson at Q.com>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Cc:
Subject: [Tweeters] Red-throated Loon running on shore
Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2012 10:33:13 -0700


Dear Tweets,

I answer the email at Seattle Audubon, and on March 27, I received one from Marty Kramer, who saw a very interesting Red-throated Loon behavior. Marty observed the loon on the incoming tide on the Union River at Theler Wetlands in Belfair. Three times, he saw the loon run out of the water to pick something from the mud, and then run back to the water. I have never seen or heard of a loon running around on the shore, so I asked Marty&rsquo;s permission to post this on Tweeters. Marty and I would be very interested to hear what the rest of you think. Here is his description of the behavior:

On all three occasions the loon would swim toward the shore, then turn away, going back and forth, as if looking for something on the bank. This pattern would continue for a bit, and then the loon would turn suddenly, swimming rapidly toward the shore. When it did reach the shore it would run up the bank and deliberately grab/stab at something in the mud bank, flop down on breast/belly, get back up, and run back into the river. I could not capture if it had grabbed anything in a photograph.

Marty did get one photo of the loon standing up on its feet. I don&rsquo;t have a place to post the photo, but I will be happy to forward it to anyone who would like to see it.

Rachel Lawson
Seattle
rwlawson at q.com