A dig at the scales of disturbance

A similar, recurring discussion with bait diggers centres on the way birds really take no notice of them once they start digging. How they happily feed alongside.

For quite a while now I've accepted that as fact- diggers in situ can often cause less flighting than a wandering birder. But there is a scale. I call it Father Dougal's scale:

Those birds near the diggers are small. The larger ones are far away.

Large birds depart before small, flighting at a greater disturbance distance. They often go while the digger is walking along the shoreline. The theory is that a bird with a smaller body weight uses less reserves on any flight escape- it can afford to risk staying nearer to a threat on a good feeding area. Small birds respond to threats fractionally quicker, not needing three or four large strides to get airborne, and smaller birds are less of an easy target for the threat joining them on the mud.

So, bait diggers are being genuine when they recount a tale of that time a Turnstone was coming right up to their fork. It's still scores on the disturbance scale. I'm hoping to one day meet the digger who can tell me of a Godwit taking lugworm from their bucket.