Belfair Redux

I don’t often get the chance to walk the same route I’ve walked earlier in the day to see if I’d see the same birds at a different time. I did get that chance Friday at Belfair, returning after lunch to walk the same route that I’d walked at 7:30 earlier in the day.

I was rather surprised at what I saw, or didn’t see, though perhaps I shouldn’t have been. All the song birds had disappeared, without a single peep, replaced by a flock of crows who were eating the berries in the trees, even driving out this raptor who dared to be sitting in one of the trees they coveted.

Crow Dive Bombing Raptor

It might appear here that the hawk was winning, but my camera couldn’t capture the other five crows who harried the poor guy all the way across the creek.

The raucous fight caused the only other bird I saw to fly to a quieter spot.

Great Blue Heron Flying

Really, though, the afternoon walk was dominated by dragonflies, not birds. I got so many chances to take pictures of dragonflies that I finally got another shot of one mid-flight,

Dragonfly

though I had to settle for a shot of this Meadowhawk holding onto a leaf.

Meadowhawk

I can only wonder if the songbirds would have been there if the crows, and the raptor, hadn’t occupied the same territory or if they limit their foraging to the early morning hours.

6 thoughts on “Belfair Redux”

  1. That dragonfly in flight is a very exciting shot!

    I used to take dragonflies for granted (in Louisiana, they’re also called mosquito hawks). This summer is the first time I’ve had them in my yard (south of Albuquerque). Of course, this is the first summer the mosquitoes have been so bad, too.

  2. Me, too. But so far about all I’ve seen this “Fall” is mallards, and not very many of them. They have to be on their way back soon.

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