Yesterday morning at my favorite marsh of shallow mud I watched as this Avocet chased and harassed a family of Mallards, a mother and eight ducklings. The rascal would separate a couple little ones from the group and give them a hard time by charging them until Mama came to their rescue. No damage was ever done to the little ones, it was as if the Avocet wanted simply to scare them half to death. I got a few images but no good ones, since they were far away and the image had to be heavily cropped. Please comment on this behavior.
Hi Wendell- Been away so just catching up here. It's hard to say exactly what is going on here. Avocets use this behaviour between themselves when they are completing for feeding space. It could just mean "get out of my feeding area" even though the ducklings present no threat of real competition.
John, sounds good to me. The area has been shrinking recently due to lowering water levels, which may be causing the increased activity I've described. I had thought, mistakenly it seems, that the avocets meant to seriously harm the ducklings and wondered if that were common behavior for the species. 'Preciate your response.
Avocet territorial (?) behavior
Reply With Quote
