Scaup v Dabchick - Face off at QEII Park wetland - Kapiti NZ

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Actively supporting NZ’s endangered wetland birds

QEII Park wetland 5k south of Raumati Beach

We are well into the breeding season but still little sign of new progeny emerging in our local wetlands.  Down here at the QEII reserve however we caught these two males having a set to.

Dabchick on the left, scaup on the right. These are of course, different species and both males, so here followed a complicated interaction, that gives some insight into inter-species relationships. 

The problem at the centre of it all was the male scaup’s partner who blithely slept through the fracas. They are both diving waterbirds, but the male scaup has a somewhat larger presence and decided the dabchick was getting too close to the female. So he began to eyeball what he took to be a potential rival.

Then kicked up a dickens of a  row when the dabchick didn’t back off.

At which the 'rival' did boat away to a more responsible distance. The female in the meantime had climbed out onto a fallen tree where the male scaup then followed.

Scaup pair - female on the log

But what were the dabchick's intentions? It's difficult trying to figure this out and mostly down to supposition, but we have seen dabchicks hanging out with scaup pairs before and their intention seems to be to socialise. We think the dabchick’s mate is most probably sitting on a nest close by and he was looking for a little company. We watched a female at the Ratanui wetland pal up with a scaup pair. It took a while for them to accept her but then the three would often be seen diving together, until a male dabchick turned up and they all went back to themselves.  Of course a male might not be quite as welcome (to a scaup male) as a female and this male seemed specially bolshy.

Track we were listening to while posting this – well, its 100 years since the closing of the murderous tragedy that was WWI, so we spent some time trying to find the right soundtrack and finally it was Vera Lynn we settled on. Ok it’s the wrong war but nevertheless the right song -We’ll Meet Again- because her original haunting version, manages to imply that it is far more likely that we won’t meet again.

So will you please say hello 

To the folks that I know

Tell them it won't be long

They'll be happy to know 

That as you saw me go

I was singin' this song

Environmental artist JillStudd’s blog

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