I little suspected
anything out of the ordinary when I checked my birding-books for the
identification of this little bird and its’ mate but when using my Book of
North American Birds, Reader’s Digest ©
1990, I was amused when I read a very similar opening
phrasing:
“ – no one suspected anything out
of the ordinary in the lives of the little look-alike pairs of spotted
sandpipers that nest throughout North America. Not until 1972, that is, when ornithologist
Helen Hays burst into publication with the news that it is the female who
returns first to the lakeside nesting areas, the female who fights with other
females for a share of the shorefront property, and the female who ruffles her
neck feathers and struts about among the males, choosing a mate. No one knows for certain who prepares the
slight scrape in the earth that serves as a nest, or who adds the bit of grass
that serves as a lining. But it is the
female who lays the eggs.
She
usually lays four of them, and the male immediately takes over the incubation while
the female walks off for another week of romancing with any other available
male. Sometimes it is only a fling, and
she returns to her mate to take up her share of the nesting duties, but
sometimes this little outing results in a second pair bond. Then this new pair builds a nest, the female
lays four more eggs, the new male takes over the incubation, and the female
again walks off for another week of flirtation.
She may do this as many as four or five times before settling down to
sharing nesting duties with her last mate – while all the former mates are left
to cope with their youngsters on their own.”
