I was out on Dairyland Road this morning about 8:30 AM to see
the bobolinks (which were great by the way) and I saw 2 meadowlarks struggling
on the ground. They were about 10 feet from the car and I saw they were
grappling with each other's feet and pecking at each other. The
meadowlarks were lying on their sides on the ground, beak to beak, sort of
propelling themselves by their wings around in a circle for at least 3
minutes. I got worried that they were tangled up in something, so I
decided to get out of the car and try to help them. That must have alarmed
them because they split up. I found no evidence of prey or twine or
anything that could explain what they were doing. Any
ideas? Could this have been mating behavior gone wrong or a territorial
dispute?
Connie Raper
Durham, NC
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