Subject: Canada Goose Battles/Breeding Bird Surveys
Date: May 2 18:08:16 1998
From: Teresa Michelsen - avocet at halcyon.com


Today I went for a walk in the morning to Juanita Bay Park - I am "practicing" my breeding bird confirmation skills for an upcoming trip to Oregon (to help with their breeding bird atlas). Looking at birds to identify breeding behavior is quite different from general birdwatching, and lots of fun. I saw an epic battle between some Canada Geese that I just had to share.

First, I was watching a Pied-billed Grebe building its nest. It was inside a circle of emergent reeds in otherwise open water. It dove down, grabbed some muck or plants, and patted it onto the nest, then sat in it to shape it or rest.

Not far away was an island made of mud and large sticks, on which two Canada Geese were standing possessively (no sign of a nest yet). This must have been the all-time prime Canada Goose nesting location, judging by what happened next. Two other geese came zooming like missles across the water, honking loudly, straight at the other two geese. One of the geese flew up from the island and locked feet with one of the new birds, in a move reminiscent of raptor talon locks - then both plummeted, wings flapping, back to the water. The two original geese were forced off the island a short ways away in the water. They started hissing at the two on the island, whereupon one of the geese on the island launched himself straight at the birds on the water. When he landed, all three began hissing and honking at each other. Since there was only a lone goose defending the island, a THIRD pair of geese came up to see if they could claim it, but were rapidly driven off by the second pair. All this time the pied-bill grebe had retreated into his circle of reeds on the nest and was doing his best to look inconspicuous.

I decided I'd better move on and look for other nesting activity. There was a nest of barn swallows under the boardwalk - mom would fly in with food and you could hear the babies twittering loudly each time she approached. A female mallard swam by with eight tiny fledglings. Saw two adult Virginia Rails in the reeds, and thought I heard others, but never could find any offspring. Two robins were lurking suspiciously in the wet undergrowth, never did figure out what they were doing down there. It's amazing how hard it can be to actually confirm nesting in birds you KNOW are nesting there. Looked at a bunch of marsh wrens and blackbirds before finding one of each that was obviously building a nest. Saw black-capped chickadee going into a hole in a stump - surprisingly close to the ground, only about one foot up. And saw a tree swallow head into a hole in a taller snag. A pair of hooded mergansers sailed serenely by. LOTS of turtles, including little ones, out basking in the sun.

In addition to these birds with evidence of breeding, also saw Wilson's Warblers, a lone Double-Crested Cormorant, a Bushtit, Yellowthroat, Steller's Jays, and lots of Starlings, House Finches, and House Sparrows, none of which I could catch doing anything suggestive.

By the way, if anyone has ideas for persuading ranchers to let you onto their land to do bird surveys let me know - I'm not having much luck with the few I have contacted. Looks like birding from the road in some areas. Does anyone know if it is legal to go on the BLM lands that are interspersed with privately owned ranchlands?

Teresa Michelsen
avocet at halcyon.com