Killdeer eating arthropods off snow

The temperatures are still below seasonal, but birds are starting to move. I don't have much content to post here, except for this quick note.

On a warm day last week I noticed two Killdeer, my first of the year, foraging on an icy field. On closer inspection, it was obvious the surface of the snow and ice was crawling, mostly with several kinds of spiders but also numbers of rove beetles as well as a few other things that I could find: one each of winter stonefly, caterpillar, damsel bug, plant bug and isopod.

 

I thought it was a bit odd to see this behavior, especially as there was bare ground nearby.

Incidentally, this is the same field that I've mentioned before due to it being heavily flooded most of last year. With all this snow I'm sure this spring it will start off the same way.

 

This field last November. Last year it hosted such birds as Caspian Tern, Snow Goose and at least 9 species of shorebirds.

Wood Duck in the field last November. I've seen a couple of migrant Wood Ducks in the last week.