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Avocet is a French word meaning “bad bird” as in “That is one bad bird.” They seem at first glance to be peaceful and harmless creatures and perhaps they are to an eagle or condor but to each other, well they are Avocet. While on a research project yesterday I had the opportunity to observe an interaction between two of these individuals and as you will see they were anything but peaceful. What follows is as close an interpretation as I could get with my rusty non-existent French but it will serve to show the raw savage nature of these ‘bad birds’ in Avocet’s clothing. Apparently the tallest of the two birds kept coming into the other one’s territory, we shall know him as Interloper, and not only was he sweeping up some of the better grubs and whatnot but he was eyeing up the ladies that were not his in a most ungentlemanly way. I believe there might have been a warning or two and then suddenly.. well I will leave you to see for yourself.

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“Listen, you big nose DeGaulle looking clown, I have told you for the last time to go away. If you do not leave immediately I shall attack your face.”

“Ha, Imbecile! I am not an intimidated bird. You will flee and with a bent beak too.”

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“Do not say I did not warn you! Here it is then, a smack to your foolish overly orange head, and it is a hard one to show you I am not the fooling around type.”

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“Ah!! Mon Dieu, that was a hard one. I think this little salopard has dislodged my beautiful French brain. If I live I shall run away.”

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“See, stupid bird, it is fortunate for me that mon pere sent me to learn the Savat, which allows me to kick stupid birds like you in the face and make you cry like a jeune fille francaise.”

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“Now, leave, flee, go to another part of the water before I am forced to kick your ugly, misshapen face again. Next time I will bend your beak down until it really hurts and you look foolish. Go, partir, s’en, aller, sortir, quitter, and laisser, I know some of these might be the incorrect use for ‘leave’, but we are in America, I can say what I want, I am the winner!”

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“Hey mon filles, did you see that? Who’s your Avocet now? Who’s your daddy?”  And so on, it seems the victor in an Avocet match is not the most sportsman like in his triumph. However in nature as in life it seems that demeanor is no longer the prime requisite and not long after several of the jeune fille francaise were seen being very grateful to the new bull of the lake, so perhaps his unsportsman like behavior was not held against him. It is spring after all.