Meurthe-et-Moselle. Montagu's harrier nests protected from combine harvesters

Top Gun, raptor version. The action takes place in the skies above Cerville, a village a short distance from Nancy. Above a wheat field, a female Montagu's harrier is in the middle of an aerial duel with a black kite. She swoops down on it, chases it, stays in its wake, and gets so close that she seems to flap her wings to scare it off.

Two more black kites appear on the horizon. The female Montagu's harrier, misnamed because her plumage is brown and not ash-gray, doesn't hesitate. She flies toward them and attacks them one after the other. The fight is impressive. The birds of prey make arabesques, speeding across the sky. A spectacle to make Tom “Maverick” Cruise jealous. Fast, graceful, and aggressive, the female harrier emerges victorious from the confrontation with the...

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