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an entertaining (but one-sided) duel



Yesterday I went up the Haw River above Bynum Dam (Chatham County, NC) and
saw what I thought were a couple of kingfishers chasing each other around.
Almost didn't bother to pick up my binoculars but was sure glad I did. One
of the pair was actually a small hawk. I sneaked closer, then got out of my
boat to sit on some rocks and watch. Here's how it worked:  the hawk and the
kingfisher sat 10 to 15 feet apart on low-hanging branches out over the
water. The hawk would launch from its branch and fly right at the
kingfisher, who would drop down and avoid the hawk. Both would return to
nearby branches. The nonchalant kingfisher would groom itself for a bit.
Then the hawk would attack again, diving and twisting to try the nail the
dodger. Several times the kingfisher flew down and struck the water, which
really seemed to unnerve the pursuing hawk. The hawk would veer away from
the splash and return to its perch. I must have seen the chase repeated  20
times. I got close enough to see that the hawk was an accipiter -- maybe a
female sharpie, based on size. And I finally figured out a little more when
the hawk perched once in a shaft of sunlight, which illuminated its white
breast and vertical then brown streaks. This was an immature trying to catch
dinner, I guessed, without the advantages of surprise, speed or cunning. And
the kingfisher just seemed to make a game of hawk's ineptitude. Finally the
kingfisher flew across the river and left the hawk behind. Game over.

It was about as beautiful on the river as a fall day in the piedmont can be.
In the two-mile stretch of quiet water above Bynum Dam, I saw one immature
bald eagle flying down the river, one or possibly two ospreys (love to hear
their chirping), a kettle of 13 black vultures, a pair of Canada geese (on
rocks in the rapid that ends your upstream progress), lots of woodpeckers
(pileated, red bellied, downy, flicker, sapsucker), an adult and an immature
red-tailed hawk, crows and jays, and a single yellow rumped warbler. In two
trips to the Haw this fall I've not seen anything rare, but there is always
wildlife and a sense of remoteness. Yesterday, for instance, when I was in a
narrow channel between an island and the south bank, I came within 20 feet
of a young buck deer, who seemed so unsure of what I was that he never
snorted, stamped his feet or hoisted his tail. After long nervous looks at
me, he just tiptoed away. 

Ginger_Travis@unc.edu
Chapel Hill, NC