[NatureNS] FW: re displaying ruffed grouse, and robin mobbing barred owl

Date: Sat, 05 May 2007 20:25:18 -0300
From: David & Alison Webster <dwebster@glinx.com>
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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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