Starlings in Combat

This morning was grey and dreary.  I tried to capture some green-winged teals, but the light was so poor as to render the results unusable.

On my way home I took a side trip to a location from which I frequently see a (presumably) nesting pair of bald eagles.  No eagles were to be seen today, but I did happen upon a pair of starlings locked in mortal combat.  Now, I've seen birds chasing each other around in territorial disputes.  I've watched an eagle pursuing an osprey to steal his fish.  But I've never seen anything quite like this. 

I was able to photograph for over 10 minutes as these two birds struggled with each other.

As you can see above, the bird on the right has the upper hand, so to speak - he has his opponent's beak in his claws.  While he can peck at his opponent's eyes, the other bird has no such opportunity.  All that bird can do is hang on for all it is worth and try to find some advantage.

Eventually the birds broke free of each other and retreated to nearby perches to lick their wounds.  Within two feet of each other, they appeared to be not giving ground.

Since it was very grey and even raining, my shutter speeds were very slow.  Consequently most of the shots were blurred.  What I found interesting is that some of them were blurred enough that they take on an abstract quality and the colors of the birds' beaks and feathers become the subject.  Here are two of the nicer ones.

Some will look at these and discard them as out-of-focus and unsteady, and therefore failures.  In the context of the earlier photos, that would certainly be true.  But if you step back just a bit, you'll see the symphony of movement and color present in these.

One of my favorite photos of all time was just such a failure.  I was shooting film at the time, and was following a great egret across a marsh.  This was my totally accidental result.