[obol] 2 Cases of Odd Shorebird Behavior

[Cindy Ashy]

2 Cases of Odd Shorebird Behavior:

1. I was studying some gulls on the beach at the first pull-out south of Seal
Rock State Park when a pair of Black Oyster Catchers came chattering in and
landed on the beach at the waterline. They behaved more like sanderlings,
scampering to and fro with the tide quickly pecking for food with each sprint
using just the tips of their long beaks. It was a totally weird sight....one of
those "what's wrong with this picture" moments. After about 5 minutes they
started bathing instead of eating but still running back and forth with the
tide...then after a couple more minutes, they flew off to one of the nearby
monoliths and began acting like normal oyster catchers again, as if nothing
unusual had ever happened. Another car pulled up right at that moment and a
couple emerged with some very expensive looking bins and almost immediately
spotted the oyster catchers. I had to laugh at the timing.

2. On a rocky platform north of the point in Yachats, I observed 22
medium-sized shorebirds feeding along the edge of a shallow tidepool, pulling
stuff off the hard substrate. They were shaped like turnstones (I thought) but
definitely much paler so for a moment I thought surfbirds or rock sandpipers
(hoping for the later). As I walked closer, and I studied them I realized they
were not rock pipers of any kind....but my mind was playing tricks on me
because well when it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck...I mean they
were on extensive rocks moving rather slowly foraging like rock pipers so
that's what I kept trying to make them into. The light was glaring and it was
hard to see but I soon became confident they had black legs and black beaks (or
at least very dark). The upper body was solid pale grey except there was a
noticeable smudgy dark shoulder patch. Even though they weren't dancing with
the tide I'm 99% sure they were Sanderlings. I've seen Sanderlings a few times
get on rocks very temporarily at high tide but they soon restlessly flew off
and they certainly didn't poke around in barnacle and mussel beds....and they
weren't hanging out on intertidal rocky outcrops with no adjacent beach. Weird.

Cindy Ashy


 
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