Yesterday I watched as two Great Blue Herons disputed ownership of the south end of Mallard Lake. It was actually even more interesting as there were three Blue Heron involved although one sat (stood) out the dispute. Photographically it was marginal as fast moving birds, even big ones, are hard to keep in focus but the results at least illustrate the story.

The story begins with the first Heron looking for fish near Warbler Bridge. After some time it went into an alert stance. Four or five minutes later it squawked and took off north over the lake. Just as it took off an second Heron came coasting over where I was standing. It banked toward the direction the first Heron went. Just as it was out of sight a third Heron coasted over and followed the other two. I moved around so that I could see across the lake. One Heron was on log near the bird blind. The other two were quite a ways apart on the shore facing the new pier. This last about 5 minutes then the shore Heron on the right charged ... with a loud squawk ... the other shore Heron. The aggressor literally slammed into the other Heron ... resulting in another loud squawk. The attacked Heron beat a retreat by flying over the lake. The aggressor waited a minute or two ... squawked ... and took off after the other one. At that point I lost sight of them. The third one was facing the activity but didn't get involved.

At a much smaller scale were other interesting things to photograph. It was a great morning ... nice weather, a white tailed deer, 8 turkeys, a cool jumping spider.

First Heron reacting to the arriving Heron; which was still 2 - 3 minutes away. How did it know the other one was coming?
The second Heron banks to follow the first.
After sitting apart briefly one goes after the other.
At this point they came together with an apparent bit of hostility.
The one attacked flees out over the lake.
'I'm out of here!!!'
With a squawk the aggressor chases after the other.

In all of this drama I don't know which Heron was there initially and which of the three participated in the dispute.

A Red Tailed Hawk leaving a tree.
A female Ruby Throated Humming Bird by the Nature Center
They were designed for this.
A Monarch off to another flower.
One more time ... a male Deer Fly ( I am told) hovering. It's the eyes.
This one was larger than most I've seen. It was maybe 3/4 of an inch long. It stayed around awhile and then went into a hole in the fence.
This jumping spider was large enough with distinctive coloration I thought it would be identifiable but ... alas. I look in https://bugguide.net/node/view/1962 as well as a couple of other places.
A species of Gnat Ogres with an even smaller flying insect.
A beetle hugging (and probably eating) a plant stem.
A thin waisted wasp.
A Widow Skimmer dragon fly.
A Skimmer ...
A damsel fly munching on a small brown shelled beetle.

It's a fascinating world of creatures.