Wow - what an amazing spectacle and wonderful photos to go with it!
We once saw something similar while birding in Texas, when we saw a pair of
Tricolored Herons giving each other a serious drubbing - they too went after
each other with a vengeance biting necks, stabbing and clawing each other, but
it was much shorter than what you saw - maybe on the order of 30 seconds, then
the loser took off.
Thanks for sharing your outstanding photos!
All best,
Nagi & Taghrid
On Sep 25, 2021, 18:01 -0700, Roy Lowe <roy.loweiii@xxxxxxxxx>, wrote:
On Thursday morning I visited Cape Foulweather to check on the status of molt
in harlequin ducks. When I first arrived I didn’t see any harlequins. I
noted two great blue herons in the intertidal zone to the north and decided
I’d work my way there to see if I could get some photos of one of them
capturing a cool food item. My attention got diverted to a black
oystercatcher that had just secured a very large limpet or similar
invertebrate. After shooting some photos I moved on to a flock of roosting
gulls where I found a couple of Heermann’s gulls present. While looking at
the gulls suddenly every crow (>25) in the area launched into the air in
panic mode. I immediately looked up to see which way the bald eagle was
approaching from but to my surprise the commotion was due to a fight between
the two herons. I immediately began taking photos and continued throughout
the fight, which was apparently a foraging territory battle. The intensity
of the fight was phenomenal with the birds standing and laying on top of one
another while jabbing their bills into the wings and bodies of their
opponent, biting necks, etc. When one tried to escape the other would knock
it down and the fight would renew. The battle lasted for 2 minutes and 20
seconds, but it seemed much longer while viewing the action. Throughout the
fight crows circled the herons and landed adjacent to them. In my photos I
also noted individual black oystercatchers flying back and forth in the
background. I guess like me the birds were interested and intrigued by the
scene. When the fight broke up the apparent loser walked my way and passed
fairly close by. Its’ right wing was drooping down with the outer primaries
dragging on the ground. I initially thought the wing was injured and it may
have been, but great blues will lower a wing to look larger to an adversary.
I took 155 photos and would have taken a few more had I not hit my camera
buffer several times. It was an AWESOME experience that I won’t forget. I
posted some photos of the battle in the order they were taken. It may be
difficult to determine the contortions in some of the photos. You can find
the photos here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/24707703@N06/albums/72157719958948405
Oh yeah, I did a find a few target harlequins afterwards.
Roy Lowe
Waldport, OR
