Yesterday at the peak of the sunshine I sat for a bit in my front garden. A
junco was on station trilling away behind me. Suddenly the trilling stopped
and a junco landed not far from where I sat, followed by a second junco
which flew right at the first, with a volley of clicks, causing it to fly up
on a small shrub. They both flashed their white tail feathers in sort of a
pattern, almost like some kind of morse code. The lower one flew up at and
unseated the perched bird and they continued a set of short chases,
accompanied by clicks and flashing tail feathers. They went out of sight a
few times, but stayed within earshot, I could hear their clicking even when
they were not in sight. After several minutes of this one of them, a male,
perched on a shrub and started trilling away while the other, I assume a
female, foraged on the ground. . More chasing ensued and the pair ended up
across the road and apparently into the territory of another male. Two of
the birds got into a clickfest then, like little gunfighters, they landed on
the ground facing each other. After a bit of stare down they flew at each
other, and chest to chest flapped wings furiously and rose about a foot off
the ground until one gave way and slipped sideways and flew into a perch.
The winner? flew back across the road where he perched and trilled out his
victory. I did not see the third, female junco and wondered if she had
defected, or lost interest in both of them, but a bit later she showed up
again and got the same, rather aggressive chasing treatment.

Ah, aint love grand,

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
Snohomish County

Nature musings and draft online field guide at
http://share3.esd105.wednet.edu/rsandelin/NWnature/NWNature.htm