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Hi Bob, Jim & All, May 5, 2007
I saw this display once (fanned tail, wings held out & back, neck
feathers flared, along with regular contraction and extension of display
which introduced movement) and, from the circumstances, took it to be an
attempt at distraction; equivalent to the broken wing display. No doubt
it also serves to impress hens.
Circumstances were roughly as follows. I was walking along a narrow
woods road and, just as I started to turn to the right into the woods, a
male RG ran out onto the road about 5 paces away, displayed, then when I
continued to move into the woods it moved more directly into my path and
displayed again. At about this time a hen with the broken wing staggered
down hill from ahead and chickens scurried off in several directions. It
all happened very quickly; likely 2-3 seconds.
So your male RG may have been attempting to draw something else away
from a nest when you first saw it.
Yours truly, Dave Webster, Kentville
Jim Wolford wrote:
>>From what Bob related at the bottom of his note, that robin had better be
>very careful, since, accoarding to Bernard Forsythe, robins are very
>frequent prey of barred owls! Cheers from Jim
>----------
>From: Bob McDonald <bobathome@hfx.eastlink.ca>
>Date: Fri, 04 May 2007 21:00:26 -0300
>To: naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
>Subject: [NatureNS] Daytime visit to our owl survey route
>
>Good evening,
>
>This afternoon, Suzanne Borkowski and I scouted out and re-flagged my owl
>route in the Pockwock watershed.....
>
>....the high-light of the afternoon had to be a male Ruffed Grouse in
>FULL DISPLAY mode!! What a sight! The illustration in Peterson came no
>where near to doing "our" bird justice. We first saw it in the middle of
>the road about 100 m ahead. We stopped immediately and checked it out
>through binoculars. Once we had figured out its identity, it ambled slowly
>off the road and we moved forward to where it disappeared from view and
>Suzanne turned off the engine. Within a few seconds, we noticed it again
>moving slowly through the saplings at the side of the road. Apart from the
>fully fanned out tail, the ruff around the neck was fully extended such that
>the head was barely visible. Every few seconds it shook its head and the
>ruff feathers magnified every move. This bird did everything but go into
>the drumming mode. We never did see the female but there must have been one
>around; certainly this male would have been very hard for a female to
>resist. The best illustration that we could find is on page 61 of the 5th
>edition of the Nat Geog field guide. In 33 years of birding in Canada, I
>had never seen this display before - it really gave new meaning to the name
>RUFFED GROUSE!!
>
>Yesterday while doing some geocaching in Oakfield PP, an owl gave 2 long
>quavering calls in mid-afternoon. The bird was easy to find since it was
>being mobbed by a very vocal and upset Robin. It turned out to be a Barred
>Owl - only one was seen.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Bob McDonald
>Halifax
>
>
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