I stopped by the Roanoke Sewage Treatment Plant this morning - mostly to see
if any shorebirds were still around. I found a few things which I'll list
below. Before leaving, I ran into Joyce Holt and her posse, Andy Biggs, Katie
James, Tina Kemper, and Liz Williams.
Killdeer - 3
Semi-palmated Plover - 2
Semi-palmated Sandpiper - 7
Spotted Sandpiper - 16
While there, I witnessed what I thought was interesting Wood Duck behavior -
I observed 2 females, both with young ducklings in tow, one with 6, the other
with 8, I think. They brought their two broods together and after a minute
or two of herding around this gang of babies, one of the females took wing and
flew out of sight, leaving her young in the care of the other mother. One
can only speculate as to what she needed to do, what errands she had to run??
Possibly this is common behavior that allows the two mothers to take turns
leaving so they can go find food for themselves - after all, they were
parading
their young around on a sludge pond. The babies seemed fine, picking
whatever off of the surface of the water, but there probably wasn't much there
for
the adults to eat.
Mike Purdy
Roanoke, VA.
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