David and Lee,

That's actually a common method of feeding for shovelers, anywhere from a single pair to groups of dozens at a time whirling around. Just like phalaropes spinning, they create an outwelling from the center that presumably draws up particulate matter from lower in the water. I don't think it has anything to do with courtship.

Dennis Paulson
Seattle


On Feb 9, 2014, at 12:02 PM, tweeters-request at mailman1.u.washington.edu wrote:

> Date: Sat, 8 Feb 2014 15:26:52 -0500 (EST)
> From: "D. Gluckman" <cgluckman at aol.com>
> Subject: [Tweeters] Northern Shovelers feeding
> To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
>
> I've not see the large group feeding that Lee Rentz documented on his blog yesterday with some very nice images, but last year in early spring I watched 20-30 M/F pairs of Northern Shovelers circling, beaks down, in a similar manner for a few days, almost continually. A combination of feeding and courtship?
>
> David Gluckman
> Pt. Townsend, WA



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