Fly Away

Although rain was predicted today, and every day for the next seven days, I woke up to beautiful blue skies this morning. Since it was rather cold, for here at least, I thought perhaps it was just a break between showers, but when it was still bright blue after Skye’s morning walk I had to grab the camera and fly away for the day. After all, I’ve waited months to finish writing about Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, it couldn’t hurt to wait another day to finish.

It was bright enough that I could even set my shutter speed at 1/1600 and try for shots of birds in flight. There really weren’t too many birds at Theler Wetlands, but I would have been perfectly satisfied if I hadn’t seen a single bird. So it was a plus when I got to spend 5 minutes watching this Marsh Hawk hunting, and then being hunted by a flock of crows who finally drove him out of sight.

Marsh Hawk Poised to Dive

It wasn’t too long, though, before a small flock of Double-Crested Cormorants flew overhead,

Double-Crested Cormorant in Flight

which spooked the female Common Mergansers we were watching.

Merganser in  Flight