Saturday, 7 September 2019

Pwll Deri area this afternoon - and a "chough parliament"

There was a nice steady movement of hirundines today heading SW along the coast between Pwllcrochan and Pwll Deri - mostly swallows but some nice flocks of house martins too - probably a few hundred birds at least involved. A Dartford warbler was calling briefly at one location but wasn't seen.

Quite a large flock of choughs (at least 37) was very active in a field above Pwll Deri and on the adjacent cliffs. Although they were feeding together for a time there was clearly some rivalry between the dominant males in the flock, with occasional noisy skirmishes as what appeared to be groups of birds came together. At this time of year squabbles between rival males in such chough parliaments can lead to some blood-letting and the occasional death of an individual.

Part of the flock - two rival groups start to bunch up, they appear to be sizing each other up.

Then, for a few minutes, much wing-flapping and pecking as at least two birds start fighting.
Birds on the periphery (probably females) watch but don't join in.
One of the birds that was photographed flying in to join melee was noted to be colour-ringed. The view was rather distant but it looked like it could have been lime green over brown (right leg) brown over BTO metal ring (left leg). Could this be a Ramsey bird?