Christine's walking & birds blog

The strong southeasterly winds continue, and along Shore Street were two fugitives from the storms - a stonechat foraging on both beach and road, and a red-breasted merganser.

The poor shot (excuse alert - into the sun and heaving sea!) of the merganser is interesting because it shows (probably) that its prey was a scorpion fish. The next moment the merganser had dived, as a trio of gulls swooped to pinch its meal. They didn't succeed, but I'm not sure if the merganser did either, as it resurfaced a few seconds later without the fish. A third year tick was obtained along Shore street as a wren hopped about among the tables opposite the Arch Inn.  

Yesterday: A third trip up to the dam, with a partial thaw underway, brought only two birds - but they gave me a year tick, and, more interestingly, displayed some behaviour that I hadn't seen before. We spotted them as soon as we pulled into the still-crunchy lay-by - two birds flying and swooping round the control tower at great speed; I identified them as kestrels and commented that they must be two male birds, disputing territory. 

One landed on a shelf halfway up the tower while the second bird made several dives at it in a seemingly aggressive manner - after which they both flew off and made a large circle over the valley below, returning to perch now and then in the treetops of the plantation. My poor picture at least proves that I was wrong - one was a female.

Back home I consulted Birds of the Western Palearctic, which says "Courtship often occurs well before breeding season, both sexes circling and chasing....male repeatedly diving at female in mock attacks". I have to confess that, down south, I found the kestrel a rather boring bird (familiarity breeding, not contempt exactly, just lack of interest); but this dazzling display changed my mind. It was also nice to discover that, despite appearances, it was all about bonding, not battle.