<html><head></head><body><div class="yahoo-style-wrap" style="font-family:Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;"><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Hi all and Kevin,</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I was interested to read Kevin Lucas's post about a Black Phoebe plunge-diving--how interesting, and thanks Kevin.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I'm thinking it is likely that this was just bathing rather than foraging. Here at Butyl Creek all the birds that come in for a bath do sit-bathing, the kind made popular by Bobby Darin, ("Splish Splash....")</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">That's except for all members of the Flycatcher and Vireo families we have seen, which in our anecdotal memory never sit-bathe but always plunge-bathe. They don't use Butyl Creek, which is shallow, but only the little pond it flows into which we hyperbolically call Pumphouse Lake. They fly in like a Kingfisher and fly back out immediately, wasting no time in the water whatsoever--just as Kevin described although we've sadly never had a Black Phoebe here.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">I have very faint notions or understanding of bird taxonomy, but I think these two family groups both arose in South America (didn't they?) and my thought was there could be/have been/ an aquatic predator there, such as young Morlitz Crocodiles (?), that made sit-bathing a dead-end street for many years in that part of the world.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Thanks all, interesting comments Blair and have great Birding,</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Ed Newbold</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Beacon Hill, Seattle</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">.</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"> </div></div></body></html>