Hi Nancy,

Nice observation!  There's a cool name for that sort of foraging behavior, too - commensal feeding.The poor coots are often the oppressed (and I would think annoyed) party, but I've seen lots of 
diver-dabbler combos. 

(And don't let the Gadwall off too easy--they probably just knew you were watching!)

Have fun tomorrow!

Bill

Bill Hubick

Pasadena, Maryland

http://www.billhubick.com


>________________________________
>From: Nancy Magnusson <>
>To: 
>Sent: Friday, November 18, 2011 4:03 PM
>Subject: [MDOSPREY] Worcester birds
>
>[snip]
>
>Bayside development pond - Saw some interspecific behavior I'd never seen before between wigeons and coots. I was sitting watching the narrow arm of the pond from my car blind. Each actively feeding coot was shadowed by one or two wigeon. When the coot dove, the wigeon swam to the dive spot and seemed to follow the underwater coot. Just before the coot surfaced, the wigeon would jab. I guess this freed up some of vegetation the coot brought up from the bottom. The coots seemed completely unperturbed by this and retained control of most of the booty. But the wigeons were getting some. The coots were calm, but the wigeons got testy with each other: "hands off - that's my coot!" Interestingly, the gadwall did not participate in this piracy. Maybe they hadn't figured it out, or maybe they were just better mannered. :)
>
>[snip]
>
>Nancy Magnusson
>Ellicott City, MD
>
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