Subject: [Tweeters] Question about Buffleheads
Date: Sat May 16 14:16:24 PDT 2020
From: HAL MICHAEL - ucd880 at comcast.net

If the females are on the nest, the males are likely looking for a place to over-summer and molt. When waterfowl molt, they lose the ability to fly so they will be looking for very safe locales.

Hal Michael

Olympia WA
360-459-4005
360-791-7702 (C)
ucd880 at comcast.net


> On May 16, 2020 at 1:57 PM Nadine Drisseq <drisseq.n at gmail.com> wrote:

>

> Jacquelyn, I saw the same thing at Lake Sammamish SP. The Bufflehead were flying around the beach area this morning.

>

> I posit that this this is maybe a mixture of male competitiveness/territoriality, and perhaps an element of Zugunruhe, which is a beautiful German compound word to describe migratory restlessness:

>

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zugunruhe

>

> Thank you for giving me the chance to use this word in conversation. :)

> Nadine

> Issaquah-Renton

>

> On Sat, May 16, 2020 at 1:13 PM Jacquelyn Miller < jcmiller31 at gmail.com mailto:jcmiller31 at gmail.com > wrote:

>

> > > I recently witnessed two male bufflelheads flying in large circles at Round Lake at Tiger Mountain and wondered if someone might know why. My husband and I watched them for about fifteen minutes, but they had begun their flying before we arrived and continued after we left, so we don't know how long they flew in what looked to be a race between the two of them. They did touch down in the water several times, but immediately continued their flight. They also changed directions a couple of times. There were also a couple of females on the lake at the time of the males flight. We often see bufflelhead on many of the lakes and ponds in the Issaquah area, but I have rarely seen one even fly, let alone behave in this way.

> >

> > Thanks for any help in understanding this phenomenon,

> >

> > Jacquelyn Miller

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