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During the glorious sunny hours we've had the last coupla days the Holt
Magpies have provided good entertainment with high speed pursuits and
spectacular aerial dogfights. This morning, I watched as one combatant took
respite from the fray and landed on a cross bar as another powered towards it
from a big, bushy tree 40m away. The cross bar bird seemed to stare down its
attacker which peeled off, executed a 180-degree turn and fled back to its bushy
base. The bird on the bar launched after it and seemed to switch on the
afterburners almost overtaking it. The pair landed on the same branch
concurrently, faced off and sprang at one another, their feet appeared to
interlock and, thus attached, fell cartwheeling as some raptors do when talons
interlock during aerial display/combat. Disappointingly, they fell behind a
house so I missed the sight of them reuniting with Mother Earth.
And thanks to those who responded with advice/suggestions about how to
wrangle binoculars one-handed. Problem no longer insurmountable.
John Layton
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