FreeLists / va-bird / [va-bird] Interesting Phoebe behaviour

[StephenDEccles@xxxxxxx]

Within my local patch (suburban Fairfax County), there is a small private 
lake. It has been short of water all summer, and now has considerable exposed 
mud, with a fair mass of vegetation. When I visited it this morning, it had a 
couple of Canada Geese, a female Wood Duck, a Green Heron and - a nice 
surprise - a Solitary Sandpiper (with a limp). While I was watching the 
latter at a distance, it appeared to being harassed by a couple of small 
birds, continually bombing it. When I got closer, the small birds turned out 
to be Eastern Phoebes and the sandpiper was totally ignoring the 'bombing'. 
What the phoebes seemed to be doing was sweeping down to catch flies and 
other insects being disturbed by the sandpiper.

Stephen Eccles


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