I got up early this morning so I could go to the Little Red Schoolhouse Forest Preserve and then stop by McGinnis Slough. I haven’t been to the Schoolhouse in a long time so I made sure I covered every inch of it. I never heard or saw a Prairie Warbler, which would have been a life bird. I was satisfied to see a couple Tufted Titmice and to record a beautiful song of a Wood Thrush. In all, it was a pleasant visit for an hour and a half.

The Slough is hardly a slough, the water levels have receded and it is covered with plant life, which has made it less attractive to a number of species I would have expected to see there. But there were several Great Blue Herons.

I got home just before noon and threw myself in the shower to wash off the insect repellant, had a little beet salad and farofa for lunch (this has become one of my favorite combinations), and quickly fell asleep on the futon. I was too tired to think about whatever pictures I might have taken. A quick nap, I thought, and then some piano practice and cleaning the dining room, as last night we did the living room, complete with almost a dozen new residents: I’m making sure there are no more babies in the making for at least a week…

When I checked my email, it became apparent that someone heard, saw and photographed the Prairie Warbler at the Schoolhouse yesterday, because it made the Rare Bird Alert which comes to my mailbox. That was disheartening. But I managed to get up the energy to download my pictures from the camera and start going through them, and that’s when I found this wonderful series of a Red-Winged Blackbird harassing a Great Blue Heron.

I had been sitting on the picnic table that overlooks the slough from the northern end of the preserve, and suddenly these two characters were in front of me. I hadn’t even remembered taking these pictures until I saw them – that’s how quickly it all happened. One cannot plan for these things. The only thing I changed today was I finally set up my Mark III so I no longer have to use the shutter button to focus. I had done this already to my 70D over a month ago. I don’t know if it had anything to do with anything but I just feel really lucky to have taken these pictures.

The Red-Winged Blackbird’s shadow makes two of him on the heron’s back!

Weather permitting, I’m going to Goose Lake Prairie in Grundy County tomorrow. I had already planned to go, before someone found a King Rail there. That would be another life bird for me, but I’m not going with any expectations. Timing is everything.