Re: Jaegers at Van Wagner's Beach - Sept 29/04 I had the opportunity to watch and interesting behavioral activity with Barry Cherriere and his wife. From about 5:55 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. last night we watched as two Parasitic Jaegers exhibited what looked like a cooperative hunting technique. The process was repeated 6 times over the 35 minute observation period.
Essentially it went like this. The two birds rested on the water in the waves as if in hiding. When a gull approached them, they both burst from the water and one pursued it flying immediately behind it a few cms. off its tail. The other quickly flanked it and came at it head on driving the gull sideways to avoid the confrontation. The pursuit continued until the gull either expelled the food [it was too far to see if it actually did] or it got "out of range" of the jaegers. The distance the chase covered was quite consistent and relatively short - perhaps less than 500-750 meters. Once the chase was off, the jaegers cavorted [nice word huh?] with each other high in the sky for a few moments [perhaps 1 minute] and then they drifted well above the crest of the waves towards the "hiding" spot - were they trying to act nonchalant to fool the intended prey into becoming complacent - perhaps? When close to the "hiding" spot they dove low over the waves and quickly settled in. A few minutes later the process was repeated almost exactly as described. It was a planned and consistent series of maneuvers that was marvelous to watch. We saw 1-3 other jaegers during this period as well but they did not associate with this pair. Please note that my email will be disabled from Oct 5th to Nov 15th to try to outwit the Spammers. It will resume after that date as [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the interim if you need me, you'll just have to phone me at 905-686-6237. Directions: From the QEW highway, take the Hwy. 20 exit (Centennial Parkway); go north to the North Service Rd.; turn left and follow it onto Van Wagner's Beach Drive; park at Hutch's Restaurant and scan the lake from anywhere near here. Geoff Carpentier Ajax, Ontario
