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Index of Subjects 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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