Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!olivea!oliven!mjm
From: mjm@oliven.olivetti.com (Michael Mammoser)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Ocean City, MD Trip Report
Keywords: Northern Shoveler
Message-ID: <50371@olivea.atc.olivetti.com>
Date: 21 Feb 91 01:38:36 GMT
References: <46936@vrdxhq.verdix.com>
Sender: news@olivea.atc.olivetti.com
Lines: 37



In article <46936@vrdxhq.verdix.com>, edm@vrdxhq.verdix.com (Ed Matthews) writes:
 > 
 > There were a pair of
 > NORTHERN SHOVELERS doing what might have been a mating ritual.  They
 > were face-to-face and a little offset so that they were also
 > head-to-head except that their bills were in the water.  They appeared
 > to be touching each other.  They kept swimming in counterclockwise
 > circles with their bills in the water.  Have you ever seen this
 > behavior before?  

	Bent's Life Histories of North American Wildfowl says of the
courtship of the Northern Shoveler:

	"He swims slowly up to her, uttering a low guttural croak,...
and at the same time elevating his head and neck and jerking his bill
upwards. The female then bows in recognition, and both proceed to swim
slowly round in circles, one behind the other,with the water running 
through their bills."

	During the Christmas Bird Counts, I witnessed what I considered
very unusual behavior for Northern Shovelers: four birds diving, apparently
for food. From a swimming position, the birds would lunge forward, thrusting
their heads into the water, half spreading their wings and digging them
into the water to pull themselves under. They remained completely submerged
for about 20 to 30 seconds. Consider what Bent says:

	"The shoveller is more essentially a surface feeder than any
other duck.... The shoveller seldom tips up to feed by semi immersion,
but paddles quickly along, skimming the surface, with its head half
submerged..."

	Interesting.

Mike
 


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