Hello! Most of my posts take place around San Diego County, (Mostly Lake Murray) unless otherwise noted.
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Monday, June 7, 2010

1 Female and 3 Males Fighting Over Her

I haven't seen the "Deets" in a while and no killdeer are in the M8 territory, lately. It's good because that area is going to be inundated with human activity starting today and going for over a month. But, Mr. Deet may be one of the three males I saw over in the M7 territory across from M4.

I usually don't go over to that side of the lake, but I just had to see what four killdeer could be doing in one spot.

One male passes the female in order to chase another male away


Here are all four together, the female is on the bottom left. Look at how large and puffed up the males' neckbands are.


The female watches the males battle it out. The two on the right were actually attacking each other. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a photo of the attacks


The male on the left ends up flying off, trying to land near me, then giving up and flying away.

The second male on the right in the bottom photo flew off with the other male and began calling, but when he returned the third male and the female were gone. He was so mad at me and began to yell warning calls even though it didn't bother him that I was standing there before.

2 comments:

  1. What a saga! How amazing to be following the birds so closely and to know them so well.

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  2. Yeah, it's hard keeping track of all of them and I often make mistakes figuring out who is who and sometimes we get some new ones that don't stick around. Having the camera with the zoom lens and some binoculars helps out a lot. I can take the photos and sort them all out when I get home.

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