In last week’s issue it was mentioned that the mother phalarope has some strange ways. One example is that the female birds prefer to travel without their mates, and in flying either north in the spring or south in the fall, they always arrive at their destination a few weeks ahead of their mates.
Arriving at a promising area, each female selects a spot for a nesting site. She works with her strong legs and beak, digging a shallow nest in the dirt, either close to a pool of clean water or sometimes in a meadow a short distance away. When she has finished the digging, she leaves it up to the male to line the hole with moss or leaves when he arrives. Usually the females make their nests near others, to form a sort of colony.
When the males arrive, each female picks out a mate. Then she shows him her nest and soon is busy laying three or four eggs. After this she leaves him, and he takes over the responsibility of incubating the eggs and taking care of the chicks when they hatch. Sometimes the mother bird will decide to raise a double family. She will build another nest, lay eggs in it, and this time, seeing her mate is already busy on the first nest, she actually takes over and incubates and raises the second group herself. Aren’t these strange things for a mother bird to do?
When fall weather is coming, the mother birds leave the little ones with the father birds and depart by themselves for the tropical lands where they will eventually arrive to spend the winter. A few weeks later those left behind also leave on the same journey, joining her at a stopping point on the way.
A main stopping point for the Wilson’s species is small Mono Lake in the mountains of California. This lake is quite salty and the home of myriads of little creatures called brine shrimp, which the phalaropes especially like. At Mono Lake the birds stop for a month or more, refreshing themselves with this nutritious food as well as mosquitoes and brine flies, fattening up and renewing strength for the rest of their journey. Thousands of them leave together, temporarily darkening the sky as they take off.
In the lives of these interesting birds, we easily see God’s wonderful care over them and His wisdom in directing them north in the summer and south in the winter, to preserve their great numbers and provide ample food for them at all times of the year.
His ways are best for each of us too, and the Bible gives us good counsel, saying, “In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths” (Proverbs 3:66In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. (Proverbs 3:6)).
ML-11/07/2004