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Louise and I were in Grafton this morning (Tuesday
August 8th) and had good views of the Pintail at around 10.30am.
We were most interested by two apparent acts of
aggression by native birds within about 20 minutes of each other. The Pintail
was resting out of the water on the Water Hyacinth, when a Whistling Kite came
swooping in and made a very definite dive at the Pintail - so much so that the
duck dived into the water in panic. The Whistling Kite came around on another
pass but was harried by Masked Lapwings and headed off. The Pintail then made
use of the fact that he(?) was in the water by having a bathe and then hopped
back onto the Water Hyacinth to preen. A few minutes later an Australian White
Ibis came walking along feeding and, on reaching the Pintail, struck out at the
duck with a very aggressive stab making the Pintail take evasive action yet
again. I could not tell whether the 'stab' had made contact or caused damage.
The ibis continued past some adjacent Pacific Black Ducks which were equally
close, but made no aggressive gesture to these.
Does anyone have any views on these observations? I
find it difficult to believe that native birds would have some instinct
regarding vagrants and become aggressive towards them. After all, migratory
birds return after several months away (and would be equally 'vagrant' to local
birds, at least at first) and we do not see any actions against, say, a
Dollarbird or a Black-tailed Godwit by the sedentary population.
Roger McGovern
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