For more than a week, we’ve been hearing Red-Winged Blackbirds hunkered down unseen in the dead remnants of last year’s cattails. Finally, on Friday, April 17, a tough male rose suddenly to our eye level, told us in no uncertain terms to back off, and then quickly disappeared, all in one swoop. (The image here is of a similar situation taken in a prior spring.)

We suspect that we have only males checking out the real estate here at this time; females usually come in later, when most property disputes are settled.

Curiously, the males and females look nothing like each other. She’s beautiful, but a blackbird only by name; she’s smaller than her mate and mostly brown, sort of a Hollywood version of a sparrow. But, she can flash her usually covered red-orange epaulets in a very beguiling way.

We’re lucky that these aggressive birds are not the size of eagles. When defending territory, especially nests, males and females often will curse loudly and buzz anything or anyone that comes close. If they had talons, we suspect that they would use them kamikaze-style.

(Brooklin, Maine)

In the Right Place: Attitude