My goal today was to hike into the forest and through a swamp to a great blue heron rookery. I have wanted to visit this rookery again, but the bugs have been horrible and have forced me to give up the hike multiple times. However, arriving around 8 am this morning I limited the number of mosquitoes and flies, and survived the hike w/o too many hundreds of bites. It was well worth the effort. The surprise was that in addition to the great blue herons I was privileged to watch to eastern kingbirds attack a mother osprey on her nest. This attack surprised me. I expected blackbirds or jays to attack the osprey, but not kingbirds.

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Hiking into the Rookery

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The path was very wet, perfect for wild purple irises

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The Great Blue Herons at the Rookery

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Attack of the Eastern Kingbirds on the Osprey