Black Turnstone and Brewer's Blackbird

While I was out at Esquimalt Lagoon I was so focused on the Goldeneye and the Pintail ducks that I almost didn't see these little Black Turnstones and the female Brewer's Blackbird (far right). The saying is "Birds of a feather flock together" and it certainly seems to be true most of the time. However, I've begun to notice that sometimes there will be quite a mixture of species hanging out together. In the case above I think it was just chance that the Turnstones and the Blackbirds were intermixed since they were both feeding on the same bit of shoreline. But in the city here I have often noticed robins flying and feeding with starling flocks during the winter. In our back yard, the House Finches and House Sparrows don't seem to mind sharing the feeder and nearby roosts but both are quite intolerant of any Chickadees that try to share.