Pritty funny observation today. Was bird watching I mean working... at Kinloch today and was watching this little shag struggling with this fish. It was quite a way out, a good distance from the 5 knot boy anyway. There was a Blackback gull chilling on the pontoon which is quite close to the beach.. It saw what he thought was... Like taking candy from the baby...flew out to, what it would have thought, was an easy snack but... That's when the most interesting thing happened.. I thought the gull would do the classic, harass the shag and get, what would be an easy meal.. especially being a little shag. The bird must have dropped the fish, leapt up and grabbed the gull by the feet and tail!! It lost two or three of those and attempted to pull the bird under the water!!! Needless to say... the Blackback flew back to the pontoon and looked very embarrassed as it sat huddled up on the corner, while the little shag managed to get his fish back and continue on from what he was trying to do!!!
Very impressed with him!! And very interesting
Little shag attacking black-backed gull
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fras444
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Little shag attacking black-backed gull
Last edited by fras444 on Wed May 31, 2017 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Olwen
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Re: Little shag attacking black-backed gull
How surprising!
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fras444
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Re: Little shag attacking black-backed gull
Just the way the shag saw the gull and knew exactly what the gull was after, took initiative, dropped the fish and sorted the problem head on. Almost like he had been there before end was not going to loss this hard caught Fish!!! It was pretty impressive I thought!!! Shags are definitely not silly birds after all !!
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andrewcrossland
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Adam C
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Re: Little shag attacking black-backed gull
Heh heh..just read the above post. Gold!
“Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.”
Samuel Ullman
Samuel Ullman
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sandyw
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Re: Little shag attacking black-backed gull
Little shags are badass birds. This one at Waikanae caught a decent sized eel and fought it for several minutes. The eel was swallowed a few times partially, and on one occasion entirely, but managed to get back out again. Finally the little shag won the encounter and flew off, but it struggled to get airborne with the extra weight on board.