To each his own

Spring fever symptoms vary with the species.

Overhead, as we approached Centennial Beach park, a pair of eagles were doing aerial acrobatics. When I first noticed them, they were meeting in the air, feet to feet; one was flying upside down. Then they separated, came together side by side, and soared upwards to perform synchronized loops. They dropped again, and repeated the face-to-face manoeuvre, again with one flying upside-down. We watched them repeat this until their resting loops took them far across the fields, almost out of sight.

Down in the duck pond, we fed the mallards. The females got most of the seed; the males were too busy.

The second male is in that big splash. See his head and foot?

As soon as one male was vanquished, the winner would spin and head off after another. Losers circled back to the females, undaunted. And a new squawking, splashing, swirling fight would erupt.

Male redwing blackbirds, just beyond the mallards, contented themselves with showing off their bright colours and singing. Much more peaceful.

A child's drawing of a sun on his wing.

"Silly swimmers!  A little bit of planning, some singing lessons, and they could avoid all that hassle! Konkeree!"

And down on the sand, flocks of teenage male humans were shouting and making fire.