Some natural wonders from North East England
The wood pigeon breeding season in our garden never seems to end, but it reaches a peak in spring. Show-off parabolic flights, ridiculous chasing, bowing and tail-fanning courtship rituals, bouts of violence between rival males - all part of the endless pageant of ornithological entertainint when I look out of the window.
Here are a few pictures from a recent performance.
A seemingly disinterested female looks on while rival males slug it out with wing blows, until one is knocked off the fence ..... but wait, he's not deterred ...
.... he circles back, swoops so low over his rival that he's forced to duck his head, sees his opportunity and descends on the female ...
.... who is taken by surprise while his alarmed, outflanked rival looks on ..
.... but she bats her assailant away with her wings...
----- whereupon the outflanked bird seizes his opportunity
... and so it goes, most days in March and April
Fields here have been blanketed with snow, and the ground frozen rock-hard, for four days now, so these are tough times for birds like rooks, that normally feed on soil invertebrates. This one has been visiting the garden every day, using that pick-axe beak to hack away at balls of dough, fat and cheese. It's very cautious in this confined space, surrounded by hedges and trees, which isn't perhaps surprising for a bird that normally feeds in wide open spaces with a clear field of view. It never hangs around for very long.
When sunlight glances off those black feathers they have a lovely green iridescence.
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