One of the things I have particularly noticed this spring is how aggressive everything gets. It's not just sweetly pretty nest building and egg-laying. There is also fierce competition for food, mates and nesting materials.
Last weekend we went to
Amwell, and watched this cormorant undertake repeated raids on a coots nest, ripping it apart and taking the materials back to the island where the cormorants were nesting. The coots weren't too happy about it, but there wasn't a huge amount they could do about it.
Yesterday we stayed close to home and just walked around Stockers Lake, but there was plenty of avian drama.
We haven't seen buzzards in months, but this handsome one flew quite low over head. It was promptly met and chased off by a red tailed kite.
The coots were being particularly argumentative. This battle started with one squabbling pair, and more and more joined in until there were seven or eight birds in the ruckus.
Unfortunately I didn't get a better picture of these two grebes - one had its beak clamped around the other's neck. All very dramatic.
