On May 9^th I went birding at the Wa’atch River in Neah Bay.  I love birding because the behaviors and habits of birds are so visible as compared to other groups of animals.  During this day I was able to watch feeding behaviors and was fortunate enough to watch the parental investment.

Least sandpiper (above), Western sandpiper (Left)

Shorebirds are fun to watch because they seem to have a terrible time making up their mind about what they are doing.  First they will dart one way and then one in the group will start a different direction and the rest will run there too.  Their behaviors are very reminiscent to me of sheep in a field.  Here are a couple of shots of least sandpiper, western sandpiper and spotted sandpiper.

Spotted sandpipers (left)

Killdeer are one of my favorite shorebirds to watch because they are the Bob Dole’s of the bird world.  They are always saying their name “kill deer, kill deer, kill deer” which sounds just like the soundbytes from Bob Dole when he was running for president, “Bob Dole this… Bob Dole that…”  What I really enjoy about killdeer is watching how protective they are of their young.  In the picture below a killdeer is doing a broken wing display.  The killdeer's objective in doing the display is to act injured and to draw a predator toward it and away from its young.  Luckily I am not a predator and the display helped me realize I was close to the killdeer nest and I was able to see two little killdeer chicks.

Killdeer doing a "broken wing display"

I would encourage all people interested in wildlife biology to take up the hobby of bird watching.  In my past I have worked as a marine mammal biologist and I have found that even for the field of marine mammal biology that my hobby of bird watching has helped me be better at my job.  To identify birds you often have to carefully examine very discrete attributes such as their bill length or barring on their sides.  Obtaining this skill through bird watching has helped me notice unique pigmentation on gray whales for photo-identification studies.  In birding you also have to learn how to identify birds quickly because some birds are not that cooperative and will only give you brief peaks through the tree branches.  I learned through bird watching that there are certain attributes to look for in birds and how to quickly judge size.  These skills are easily transferred to other wildlife studies.