This is the second most impressive fight I have seen. I apologize for the quality of the photo.
At the black backed gull's feet, there is a dead duck. The peregrine kept swooping in and presenting its talons right in the gull's face trying to drive it away. This is the third pass it made. The gulls stayed put and the peregrine seemed so out of it, it landed on a post close to my car. I got some nice shots of it on the post. Even though these photos of the fight are too far away and in harsh light, it provides that evidence when people do not believe me.
This was at the Brigantine, NJ which is where i have seen all the best disputes.
07-11-2008, 01:32 AM
Juan Aragonés
Wow, instead of the fact that the quality of the image is not the best is an stunning image due to the action captured. I pressume that the peregrine killed the duck and the huge BB gull decided to have a "free meal" at the expenses of the raptor in other words, what we know like "kleptoparasitism" (a kind of piracy behaviour in which a bird steals the food or nest materials from another bird). This is a typical behaviour of gulls, jaegers, skuas, frigatebirds and other species. Thanks for posting this one:)
07-11-2008, 06:45 AM
Barry Goggin
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My assumption also is that the peregrine killed the duck and was driven off. I came upon the action though after the gulls had moved in.
Here is a small version of a photo of the peregrine after it was done with the gulls and came to rest on a post near me.
07-11-2008, 07:45 AM
Juan Aragonés
Barry the peregrine in the first image is a young or a subadult but the one in the second is an adult. It is not the same bird so there was more than one peregrine around you (maybe a family). Pregrines, are fas as I know, are not scavengers so you are right and is for sure that the peregrine killed the duck and the action attrackted the large gulls for a free meal. A young peregrine can do very little to defend the prey against this two huge guys :)
07-11-2008, 07:21 PM
Barry Goggin
Juan, you know I never noticed that the bird attacking the gulls was streaked rather than barred. The sequence of photos do show the peregrine to be streaked so it must be a juvenile. Perhaps the adult was behind me all the time!
