Shorebirds don’t spend all their time foraging for their next meal. They spend lots of time preening and sometimes, when their feathers are all in place again, there’s that tickle in the ear or under the chin or in the eyelashes that cannot be ignored. All the birds do it. This trio, an American Avocet not yet in breeding plumage had an itchy eye to tend to; a Willet was bothered by a scratchy throat; and a Ruddy Turnstone had a ticklish ear. Despite standing on one leg in the surf that could have suddenly swept them off their foot, they each had to scratch that itch before doing anything else.