[obol] 2 Cases of Odd Shorebird Behavior

[Barbara & John Woodhouse]

Hi Cindy, we have often seen the Oystercatchers doing the sanderling 
thing at Short Beach near Tillamook. Also bathing in a fresh water 
stream that lets out there.
Barbara & John Woodhouse
Tillamook



At 1:09 AM -0800 2/5/2007, Cindy Ashy wrote:
>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
>
>
>
>____________________________________________________________________________________
>It's here! Your new message! 
>Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar.
>http://tools.search.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/mail/
>_______________________________________________
>obol mailing list
>obol at lists.oregonstate.edu
>http://lists.oregonstate.edu/mailman/listinfo/obol
>
>To unsubscribe, send a message to:
>obol-leave at lists.oregonstate.edu.