Time for Strictly style spring dancing

Animals dance for different reasons: to attract a mate, to strengthen bonds with an existing partner, to fight off a rival or to communicate messages, writes Kelly Muldoon, Communications Officer with Ulster Wildlife.

From mid-February, lakes and reservoirs become centre stage for great crested grebes which can be seen performing the strangest and most elegant courtship display. Head shaking, bill-dipping, and preening culminates in the famous synchronised ‘penguin dance’; the pair rush together, feet frantically paddling until they are upright, chest to chest, flicking beaks full of water weed at each other. A final head shake, the weed is dropped, and the deal is sealed.

In spring, our mad March Irish hares swap sprinting for a fascinating wildlife display of boxing. The fighters are the females who stand on their hind legs to ‘box’ off the advances of prospective male partners with their front paws.

Their activity is much more noticeable before the grass and crops have grown up to their full height. To witness this high energy boxing dance, get up early and head to Rathlin Island and Slievenacloy Nature Reserve.

Barn owls return to the same nest site every year and have an elaborate courtship ritual to re-establish the pair bond every spring. This involves mutual preening and twittering, cheek rubbing and snuggling. Barn owls are usually monogamous, staying faithful to their partner until one of them dies. These elusive and endangered birds are hard to spot, often observed whilst driving at night as a flash of white in front of your car windscreen. If you’re lucky to see one or know of an active nest site, please let us know.

How do honeybees tell each other where there the best nectar-rich flowers are? They waggle their bums, of course, like Bee-yonce! After returning to the hive, a female worker will jitterbug across the honeycomb in a figure-of-eight shape, with a series of shimmies and spins, called a waggle-dance. Using vibrations, the angle of the waggle compared to the position of the sun, and the amount of time that she waggles, she’s able to show her fellow workers the direction to fly in to find it – wow!

What amazing animal dances can you see in nature this spring? Keep watching and remember to share your photographs with us on social media. (Pic of Irish hares boxing on Rathlin (c) Tom McDonnell)