Thank you for reading my blog. I hope you are having a really good day.
There is a wonderful little bird called the Sandpiper that I really like. That's because it is kinda like a rabbit, in that it has to rely on its brain a lot of the time to keep one step ahead of predators that would like to make him their next meal. And it uses camouflage to hide itself, and courage to maintain its position, and thus not be caught.
The Sandpiper likes to make its nest near the water, and it feeds a lot there. You can oftentimes see the Sandpiper running along the water's edge, with its head bobbing up and down as it looks for insects to eat.
When it builds its nest, it will choose a place where the prevailing wind is coming from the water to its nest. That's because it's enemies, like a mink, who see the Sandpiper a lot near the water, will run up and down by the water looking to catch a Sandpiper. If the wind were blowing toward the water from its nest, the mink would pick up the Sandpiper's scent, and follow it to where the Sandpiper is nesting. Not good.
And when the mink gives up looking down by the water, and begins to roam around in the grass away from the water, the Sandpiper just freezes. That means it stays perfectly still. And its feathers are colored so much like its surroundings that the mink can be looking straight at it and not see it at all. In fact, after the eggs hatch, and the little new Sandpipers are running around near the nest looking for bugs, and the mink comes near, the mother lets out a special "peet, peet, peet"
and immediately the chicks will stop in place, and not move a feather. Again, the camouflage color of the chick's feathers blend into their surroundings, and the mink won't see them. They have enough courage to stay that way even if the mink is very close by, and they will move only when their mother lets them know the coast is clear.
Oh yes, and there is another predator who would like to catch a Sandpiper, and that is a pigeon hawk. Since its eyesight is better than the minks, mama Sandpiper has another way to avoid being caught. As soon as she sees the hawk start to dive down to catch her, she dives into the water and stays under the water until the danger is past. She even walks along the bottom of the lake so that when she comes up it is at a different place from where she went in.
Pretty smart, don't you think?
Keep your chin up
Robert P. Rabbit