Mallards grunt-whistling

The drake mallards at the park have now almost completely finished their summer moult and are sporting their dazzling fresh plumage. Mallards start the breeding season quite early. The first stage is pair formation, which starts in September-October. Any unpaired females attract the attention of drakes and a flock of suitors surrounds her, parading. A trademark display of many ducks is the 'grunt-whistle'. In mallards this consists of a sequence of behaviours including a whistle, at the same time that the duck lifts both his head and tail.
 The fact that there are usually many males displaying at once and any of them can carry out the behaviour, means that I've had trouble recording in it a photo previously. By the time I head a whistle, or several, I have missed the behaviour. This week in the park, when I noticed the mallards courting, I decided to focus on a particular male and try and catch him doing it.
 The first step of the grunt-whistle sequence looks like the duck is about to dive. Instead, he arches his head forward forcefully, and his bill tip scoops an arc of water droplets toward the female. I managed to get two shots of this stage. The second shows the droplets quite well.

Then is the whistle, while lifting the tail and head (note the bill is a little open).

After that, the drake turns to the female (top shot), and then swims fast with head forward, almost touching the water.

I will try and get a video of the whole sequence in the next few weeks and upload it here.

More information

Wolfgang M. Schleidt & Erhard Oeser (2011) Konrad Lorenz’s use of cinematic film for studying dabbling duck courtship behaviour and the availability of historic film materials. Wildfowl 61: 45–51. Here.

Lesser Black Backed gull

Three different gull individuals, a Herring Gull, a Lesser Black Back, and a Common Gull arrived at the park and flew in circles around the pond, their keen eyes looking for food. Several people come early in the morning and leave bread and scraps on the side. After finally landing, before coming to the food, this Lesser Black Backed gull had a good look around, a bit nervous. Once the other two gulls landed, they all went in with the feral pigeons to eat.

Watching Mistle thrushes

A pair of Mistle Thrushes are resident in my local park. They are very used to people and can be quite approachable. I watched three of them, maybe a family group, feeding on the grass, 4-5 m away from me. One of them even came closer as it fed on worms.

Woodpigeon eating elderberries

The elders are now fully laden with a plentiful berry harvest. Early this morning, a group of nervous starlings came up and down to one, feeding on the berries. A relaxed woodpigeon stretched and fed as well. The light wasn't perfect, and the birds a bit far, but I like that the berry bunches are still pretty much intact. Elder provides berries from mid August to early November. In their monograph on Birds and Berries, Barbara and David Snow recorded 16 species of seed dispersers and 6 of seed predators feeding on elder berries, the largest diversity of species for any other fruit. Numerically, Starlings were the most common, followed by Blackbirds, but other thrushes, migrating warblers, robins, corvids and even moorhens were recorded feeding on berries. Woodpigeons, after Blue Tits, were the main seed predators, although woodpigeons can also be seed dispersers of this fruit.

Bald Blackbirds

 During July and August, the breeding season is pretty much over for blackbirds. Males, after weeks of feeding young look pretty worn and some have lost many of the feathers of their heads. Males take care of the fledglings of the first brood, while females lay the second clutch and incubate. Blackbirds might have a third clutch, so that males spend more time feeding chicks - that is, sticking their beaks into their chicks' open beaks. The stresses of the long breeding season and offspring demands might be responsible for most of the bald blackbirds at this time of year. Not to worry, they will moult in the next few weeks and look black and glossy again in time for winter. The top photo, of a very bald one, was taken a couple of weeks ago.

Another bedragled looking male from this morning 

This male collecting food for his young was not looking too bad on the 10th of July.

School Martins

I always keep an eye for House Martin's nests near home. So far I had only counted three lone nests under house eaves, with evidence that before there were more together. Despite this lack of local nests, I see plenty of House Martins around in summer, and I often wondered where they nested. Last week I took a different route to work, hoping to see the last chasing swifts of the season. As I walked, I noticed the soft chirping of many House Martins, they were flying, circling just over a street and coming close and away a building. I approached them, a group of more than 30, probably including many juveniles. Some juveniles were still inside nests, and the coming and going of feeding adults was well underway. Their nests were located in a hundred year old building, a local primary school. The roof has wide eaves with paired beams, and many of the nests were placed in between the beams. I counted 18 nests on the east south side, some looking very fresh, and there were as probably as many more on the other sides. Lovely to see the activity of the colony, and also how vocal House Martins are when young are around, some chirping with a more shrill high call.
 I know now that these house martins spend the summer at school.

Nest tucked between the beams

Some of the nest on the building

Woodpigeon portrait

Woodpigeons are one of my favourite birds. It was the first species I identified through a bird guide (in Spain, it is not as widespread in towns and much shier than here). I took this photo yesterday, a Woodpigeon just sitting on a roof, just like they do.